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===Television===
===Television===

{{undue-section|date=October 2012}}
[[Image:Uverseprogram guide.jpg|thumb |upright=1.4 |right|AT&T U-verse's [[electronic program guide]] ]]
[[Image:Uverseprogram guide.jpg|thumb |upright=1.4 |right|AT&T U-verse's [[electronic program guide]] ]]
U-verse TV is delivered via [[IPTV]] from the [[cable television headend|headend]] to the consumer's [[set-top box|receiver]],<ref name=attdvr>[http://www.att.com/Common/totalhomedvr/ AT&T U-verse Total Home DVR]</ref> required for each TV. Typically, only one receiver handles [[Digital video recorder|DVR]] functions; in late 2008, AT&T became the first provider to launch a service (the optional Total Home DVR package) whereby the DVR's recordings can be watched on any connected TV.<ref name=att/><ref name=attdvr/><ref>[http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=19845 AT&T Upgrades U-verse Total Home DVR to Control Live TV on Any TV in the Home]</ref> U-verse uses [[H.264]] ([[MPEG-4 AVC]]) encoding which compresses video more efficiently than the traditional [[MPEG-2]] codec. Broadcast channels are distributed via [[IP multicast]], allowing a single stream (channel) to be sent to any number of recipients. The system is also designed for individual [[unicast]]s for [[video on demand]], central [[time shifting]], start-over services and other programs desired by only one home at that particular time. The receiver box does not have a conventional tuner, but is an IP multicast client which requests the stream desired. In the IP multicast model, only the streams the customer uses are sent. The customer's connection need not have the capacity to carry all available channels simultaneously. U-Verse TV supports up to 4 active streams at once.
U-verse TV is delivered via [[IPTV]] from the [[cable television headend|headend]] to the consumer's [[set-top box|receiver]],<ref name=attdvr>[http://www.att.com/Common/totalhomedvr/ AT&T U-verse Total Home DVR]</ref> required for each TV. Transmissions use [[digital]] [[H.264]] ([[MPEG-4 AVC]]) encoding, compared to the existing deployments of [[MPEG-2]] [[codec]] and the discontinued [[ATSC|analog cable TV system]]. The receiver box does not have a [[ATSC_tuner|RF tuner]], but is an [[IP multicast]] [[client (computing)|client]] which requests the [[Television channel|channel or "stream"]] desired. U-Verse TV supports up to 4 active streams at once. The system uses individual [[unicast]]s for [[video on demand]], central [[time shifting]], start-over services and other programs.


====U-verse packages====
====U-verse packages====

Revision as of 10:46, 3 January 2013

File:AT&T Uverse logo.jpg

U-verse or at&t U-verse is a brand of triple-play telecommunications services in 22 U.S. states. Launched June 26, 2006, U-verse includes broadband Internet, IP telephone, and IPTV services.[1][2]

History

SBC Communications (now AT&T Inc.) announced its plans for a fiber-optic network and IPTV deployment in 2004 and unveiled the name "U-verse" for the suite of network services on January 6, 2005. Beta testing began in San Antonio, in 2005, and AT&T U-verse was commercially launched June 26, 2006 in San Antonio. Later in 2006 the product launched in San Francisco, Hartford, Indianapolis, and other cities in their vicinity. On January 25, 2007, AT&T announced that U-verse was available to over 2.8 million households, and that year U-verse was launched in Milwaukee, Dallas, Kansas City, Detroit, Los Angeles, Cleveland, San Diego, and Oklahoma City.[1]

U-verse Voice was added January 22, 2008, first available in Detroit.[3] In 2008, U-verse availability approached 8 million households, and over 225,000 customers had been enrolled, with new installations reaching 12,000 per week.[1] By 2009, 1 million U-verse Voice customers and 2.1 million U-verse TV customers had been enrolled.[4]

At the end of 2011, U-verse was available to more than 30 million living units in 22 states, and U-verse TV had 3.8 million customers.[5] By mid-2012, U-verse TV had 4.1 million customers, U-verse Voice 2.6 million, and U-Verse High Speed Internet 6.5 million.[6]

By the 3rd quarter of 2012, U-verse had 4.3 million TV subscribers, 2.7 million Voice subscribers and 7.1 million High Speed Internet. This represents 7% growth quarter on quarter. The actual number of customers is lower, as most customers are subscribed to a bundle (e.g. TV+Voice) and are counted in both categories[7]

In 3rd quarter of 2012 AT&T President John Stankey announced that U-Verse deployment was 'virtually over'.

On November 07, 2012 AT&T announced plans to expand and enhance its wireline IP network to 75 percent of all customer locations in its wireline service area by year-end 2015.

U-verse. Expand U-verse by more than one-third or about 8.5 million additional customer locations. The expansion is expected complete by year-end 2015.

U-verse IPDSLAM. The company plans to offer U-verse IPDSLAM service to 24 million customer locations in its wireline service area by year-end 2013.

Speed Upgrades. The Project VIP plan includes an upgrade for U-verse to speeds of up to 75Mbps and for U-verse IPDSLAM to speeds of up to 45Mbps

Services

U-verse uses a fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) or fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) communications network, which uses fiber-optic connections to boxes either within a neighborhood or at each home's network interface device. High-speed digital subscriber lines with ADSL2+ or VDSL technology connect from FTTN nodes to the customers' premises. In order to qualify for the VDSL service the premises needs to be within about 3000–3500 feet of the VRAD. This distance can be extended to about 4500–5500 feet with the use of two-pair bonding and a 2Wire iNID system (model 3812 outside terminal, inside unit, and battery backup).

Television

AT&T U-verse's electronic program guide

U-verse TV is delivered via IPTV from the headend to the consumer's receiver,[8] required for each TV. Transmissions use digital H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC) encoding, compared to the existing deployments of MPEG-2 codec and the discontinued analog cable TV system. The receiver box does not have a RF tuner, but is an IP multicast client which requests the channel or "stream" desired. U-Verse TV supports up to 4 active streams at once. The system uses individual unicasts for video on demand, central time shifting, start-over services and other programs.

U-verse packages

AT&T groups its general channels into progressive packages (U-family, U200, U300, and U450); each adds channels to the package before it, with rare exceptions. All subscribers receive at least the equivalent of the U-family package, which also includes 41 of the 46 Music Choice channels.[9] Many U-family channels were also available on the historical U-basic package.[10] The historical U400 package is identical to the U450 package except that U450 automatically includes the HD Services package.[11]

Specialty channels are grouped into A la Carte packages, which can be combined with the general packages: The Sports Package; ESPN FULL COURT and ESPN GamePlan; Fox Soccer Plus HD; NBA League Pass; HD Services; HD Premium Tier; Paquete Español; and Adult. Paquete Español can be combined with a higher-tier package and is then called U200 Latino, U300 Latino, or U450 Latino. Additionally, channels grouped as Internationals are available A la Carte in language groups or singly, and a number of premium movie packages are available to premium package or higher-tier subscribers. High-definition TV technology is required to access HD channels.[9]

Channel groupings

  • Time-delayed: Some channels have both East Coast and West Coast feeds, airing the same programming with a three-hour delay on the latter feed; the three-hour delay also represents the time-zone difference between Eastern (UTC -5/-4) and Pacific (UTC -8/-7). The west feed is specified by adding "- West" to the name of the east feed. For certain time-delayed channels, both the east and west feeds are available to all subscribers; otherwise only the east feed (for the Central and Eastern time zones) or only the west feed (for the Pacific and Mountain time zones) is available, even though two channel numbers are assigned to the feeds. With the exception of California, Nevada, and westernmost parts of Texas and Kansas, the U-verse 22-state availability region is found within the Central and Eastern time zones.
  • High-definition: With few exceptions, the numbers of high-definition TV channels are found by adding 1000 to the standard-definition TV channel number, and HD callsigns are found by appending "HD" to the callsign of the SD channel (with or without a space). West feed callsigns typically append "-W" (or "HDW"). Most HD channels appear in the HD Services package, while the HD Premium Tier package contains approximately 25 additional premium channels.
  • Local: All local broadcast channels are identified by the station's callsign and over-the-air virtual digital channel number (e.g., "WDAF-4" for Fox affiliate WDAF-TV in Kansas City, Missouri). Local stations appear in the ranges 2-69 and 1002-1069. A national channel may also appear as a local channel or affiliate in the minimum package in available markets; in some such cases, the national channel is not available in the market where the local channel or affiliate appears.
  • Sports: Channels in the 600s are national sports channels, available to varying tiers. The Sports Package is included with the U450 package or can be added on to a lower-tier package.
  • Regional: Channels in the 700s are regional (excluding non-premium movie channels in the 790s). Subscribers each automatically receive channels that are regional to them, based on geography, in standard- and high-definition. Subscribers who wish to receive out-of-market regional channels (typically for sporting) must subscribe to the HD Premium Tier package, which includes most of the other regional channels. According to league rules, sports blackouts do apply, but rebroadcasts of games may be available out-of-market. Chicago Cubs home games televised by WGN are provided to all subscribers, who are not blacked out even if their local teams are playing at Wrigley Field.[9]

Carriage negotiations

  • Hallmark Channel and sister Hallmark Movie Channel were removed from AT&T U-verse effective September 1, 2010, due to a carriage dispute. An AT&T spokesperson stated, "Hallmark has refused to provide AT&T and its customers with a fair deal — one that is no worse than similarly-sized and smaller providers — and refused to adhere to key obligations under our current deal," while Hallmark Channels president and CEO Bill Abbott stated he was "stunned by the apparent disregard for the facts .... If they are really serious, my team and I are ready for truly fair negotiations." After the removal, the channels temporarily provided free previews of Starz Kids & Family and Turner Classic Movies respectively.[12] Crown Media Holdings operates the two Hallmark channels in the United States.
  • tlNovelas and Univision Deportes Network began on U-verse on May 11, 2012, after a carriage agreement was signed with Univision Communications.[13]
  • Until a Disney Junior agreement is reached, an automated version of the SOAPnet feeds will continue.
  • Just prior to the 2010 series premiere of AMC program Mad Men, AT&T and Rainbow Media resolved a carriage dispute without interruption to any channels. AT&T stated that Rainbow "had been trying to force the renegotiation of a contract for one of their other channels that is not yet expired". It was speculated that this additional contract renegotiation was for Sundance Channel and was successfully concluded, due to Rainbow Media's summation, "We're pleased to have reached an agreement with AT&T for AMC, WE tv, IFC and Sundance Channel that truly recognizes the value of our networks."[14]
  • HGTV (450), the Food Network (452), the DIY Network (454), the Cooking Channel (456), and Great American Country (529) were temporarily inaccessible between November 5 and November 7, 2010, due to a carriage dispute with Scripps Networks.[15][16][17] U-verse vice president Brian Shay stated afterward that AT&T had received a "fair deal".[18]
  • U-verse picked up the Longhorn Network on August 31, 2012, increasing its availability to 12.9% of the Austin television market.[19]

Internet

Internet is provided to computers connected to the on-premises Ethernet cabling or wi-fi from the included residential gateway or DSL modem. Offered rates vary as follows:[20]

Tier Technology Downstream rate (range) Upstream rate (peak)
Basic (historical) ADSL2+ 200 kbit/s - 768 kbit/s 384 kbit/s
Express (historical) ADSL2+ 769 kbit/s - 1.50 Mbit/s 384 kbit/s
Pro VDSL 1.56 Mbit/s - 3.0 Mbit/s 1.0 Mbit/s
ADSL2+ 512 kbit/s
Elite VDSL 3.1 Mbit/s - 6.0 Mbit/s 1.0 Mbit/s
ADSL2+ 768 kbit/s
Max VDSL 6.1 Mbit/s - 12.0 Mbit/s 1.5 Mbit/s
ADSL2+ 1.0 Mbit/s
Max Plus VDSL 12.1 Mbit/s - 18.0 Mbit/s 1.5 Mbit/s
ADSL2+ 1.0 Mbit/s
Max Turbo VDSL 18.1 Mbit/s - 24.0 Mbit/s 3.0 Mbit/s

The Max Plus service (then "Max 18") was announced in November 2008,[21] and Max Turbo was announced in December 2009. Basic, Express, Pro, Elite and Max (VDSL) are usually available for self-installation. Max (ADSL2+), Max Plus, and Max Turbo can be self-installed if only one jack is connected for DSL (through a splitter installed by a technician), or splitter-free if no landline is sharing the pair. Conditions where the higher speeds are still attainable through use of filters or quality wiring to more than one jack occur much less often.

Note that when U-verse is installed in a single-family residence, a disconnect order is placed for all other DSL at the same address, even those on different accounts, as AT&T claims technical limitations on the ability to reliably provide this combined service to the same address. This disconnect order takes place some days after the U-verse install and may not be accompanied by notice to the disconnected account holder.[citation needed]

Voice

File:UverseCall-history.jpg
Call history on U-verse TV

AT&T U-verse Voice is a voice communication service delivered over AT&T's IP network (VoIP). This phone service is digital and has a voicemail service found by dialing *98 from the home number. Customers subscribing to both U-verse TV and U-verse Voice are provided features such as call history on channel 9900, which displays the last 100 missed and answered calls on the customer's TV, and "Click to Call" from the TV history. U-verse Voice includes Caller ID, Call Blocking, Anonymous Call Blocker, and many other calling features. U-Verse Voice was first available in Detroit, on January 28, 2008.[3]

Equipment

Line equipment

U-verse uses the Alcatel-Lucent 7330 or 7340 Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM) shelf, also called a video-ready access device (VRAD), deployed either in a central office (CO) or to a neighborhood serving area interface (SAI). These models are both composed of circuit boards providing service, which are fed by fiber. FTTN (fiber to the node) systems use model 7330, which uses existing copper wiring to customers' homes,[2] leading to distance limitations from the VRAD cabinet to the customer's home. The 7330 ISAM is an internet protocol DSL access multiplexer that supports VDSL and ADSL protocols.[22] FTTP (fiber to the premises) systems use model 7340, which is mostly used in areas such as new neighborhoods or large-scale developments where fiber can be run to the household, removing the distance limitations of copper. The 7340 then connects to a serving area interface, which distributes service to homes in the neighborhood, via a dual strand fiber, which is then split into 32 customer fiber pairs. The fiber pairs are typically led into a customer's residence at the network interface device.

The VRAD typically connects upstream to an Alcatel-Lucent 7450 Ethernet service switch in the central office hub, then to the headend video hub office.[2]

Customer equipment

The customer premise equipment is provided by AT&T (leased for a monthly fee or purchased with a 1-year warranty), and includes a wireless router and modem, referred to as a residential gateway or internet gateway, as well as TV receivers made by Cisco and Motorola (including standard receivers, wireless receivers, and DVR receivers).

Gateway models frequently used include the 2Wire 3800, the 2Wire 3801, and the 2Wire iNID (including the 2Wire 3812 outside unit). The only VDSL gateway used is the 2Wire 3600. ADSL2+ installations are with Motorola's NVG510 internet gateway and, in the optional case for business customers, the Motorola 2210 or 2310 modem. There had been wide use of 2Wire's 2701 ADSL2+ gateway, but it was replaced by the NVG510, as the latter supported packet transfer mode (PTM), could be set on speeds higher than 6Mbit/s downstream (Elite), and was a Wireless N (2.4 GHz) wi-fi router. The EdgeMarc 250AEW (business) and Cisco E1000 and E1200 (residential) were tethered router solutions that were also replaced by the emergence of the NVG510.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c AT&T U-verseSM Timeline
  2. ^ a b c Post Alexander, Atlanta, Ga., p. 24.
  3. ^ a b "AT&T moves ahead with IMS, unveils VoIP service for its IPTV customers". Network World Convergence & VoIP Alert. January 30, 2008. Retrieved July 28, 2011. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)
  4. ^ AT&T U-verse Voice Digital Home Phone Service Reaches 1 Million Lines
  5. ^ Best-Ever Mobile Broadband Sales and Strong Cash Flows Highlight AT&T's Fourth-Quarter Results
  6. ^ U-verse Update: 2Q12
  7. ^ U-verse Update: 3Q12
  8. ^ AT&T U-verse Total Home DVR
  9. ^ a b c AT&T U-verse 2012 Playbook [February 2012]
  10. ^ Detroit Channel Directory: AT&T U-verse [May 2007]
  11. ^ Fall Channel Directory: AT&T U-verse [October 2011]
  12. ^ Hallmark Channels Go Dark On AT&T U-verse, Multichannel News, September 1, 2010.
  13. ^ Univision signs deal to launch cable networks on AT&T U-verse, Media Moves, May 11, 2012
  14. ^ UPDATE: Rainbow And AT&T Ink New Deal, ‘Mad Men’ Season Saved On AT&T U-Verse
  15. ^ "AT&T's U-verse Drops Food Network, HGTV and Other Scrippy-s Networks", Chicago Tribune. November 5, 2010.
  16. ^ Food Network, HGTV, Back on U-verse. Chicago Tribune. November 7, 2010.
  17. ^ "AT&T U-verse, Scripps Reconnect on Carriage Contract". Multichannel News. November 7, 2010.
  18. ^ AT&T & Scripps Networks Reach Agreement
  19. ^ "Longhorn Network hooks U-verse", from kxan.com (September 4, 2012)
  20. ^ AT&T - Speed Tiers
  21. ^ "AT&T Customers Connect Faster with New 18 Mbps U-verse High Speed Internet Service". News release. AT&T. November 6, 2008. Retrieved July 28, 2011.
  22. ^ Alcatel-Lucent 7330 ISAM FTTN ANSI


http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=23506&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=35661

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