3Screens

AT&T / Yahoo's Partnership Forgets to Include U-verse Channel Guide

As the phone company as we no longer know it reaches 1,000,000 home subscribers to U-verse, you would think that they would provide a Channel Guide within the Yahoo TV listing to include U-verse. 

Anyone care to chime in?  So why no channel guide for U-verse?

Overall U-verse is Tops; But U-verse Experience Stores Are Pretty Mundane

Here's an example of a piece I just submitted to an Telecommunications industry trade publication, XChange Magazine on my take about U-verse and the Experience retail stores.

Do you have something to say about AT&T and your U-verse experience?

 

Need To Save Money on Your "Cable" / IPTV Bill? Here's Some Ways to Do It

Even though I am sure we are going to get through this financial mess, economic reality does set it and there are times when families or individuals need to cut back on their cable / IPTV bills.

If you decide to totally unplug from TV here are some other alternatives  Some are free. 

Some cost money.

Your mileage may vary. 

If you need to totally  unplug, then give it a try for a month and see if you can do something else, like reading!  Personally, I can see giving up TV, but not DSL for the family. 

If it's just you, then get a wireless aircard so you can have broadband access at home and wherever you go.

Here are some choices:

AppleTV:  I've got an AppleTV device and I really like it.  I find myself watching YouTube videos, including my own,  on my big screen (free) and renting movies from Apple, instead of from AT&T, as they are less expensive.  Also, you can port your movies for viewing on your computer or your iPhone for when you travel. 

Hulu.  I've noticed that I've started to watch The Daily Show on Hulu rather than on my big screen.  Sometimes I just need a break at work and want to see an episode, or part of an episode I missed.  Hulu's interface is great and easy to navigate.

Joost. The new and improved Joost is somewhat akin to Hulu.  In its opening pitch, they are even talk about "social stuff" so I supposed they are trying to help like minded viewer communities.

DailyMotion They bill themselves as being about finding new ways to see, share and engage your world through the power of online video. You can find - or upload - videos about your interests and hobbies, eyewitness accounts of recent news and distant places, and everything else from the strange to the spectacular.

Vudu.  You still have to buy the $299 set top box, but can rent movies for $1.99 each.  I guess it saves a trip to the video store and is less than renting a video from AT&T.

Netflix.  No web access required.  You get your videos in the mail.  Or, you can buy their $99 set top box from Roku and download their movies.

PrimeTimeRewind.com.  This is from my pal, Jeff Pulver, who's always out there on the next thing in disruption.  Jeff's site is really cool because, like its name, you can get free prime time shows and re-wind them.  Hate to miss Family Guy?  No problem, Jeff's got 'em.

These are just a few samples of the best of the best. 

If you are hunkering down, but still want to scale back on your monthly bill, try going to a less expensive package.  In the case of U-verse pricing, you can save money by going from the U400 to the U100 package. 

Packages start at $44 per month.

AT&T to Sell U-verse Services at Circuit City and Wal-Mart Retail Stores

Attention WalMart (and Circuit City) customers....

AT&T today announced agreements with Circuit City and Wal-Mart to sell AT&T U-verseSM TV and AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet in more than 600 retail locations beginning this month.

Ruckus Could Cause U-verse a Real Ruckus

Warning:

•    Do not try this at home.
•    Batteries not included.
•    Demonstration as shown, performed by professional stunt car driver.

Light Reading’s Phil Harvey, has a great post entitled “Raising Ruckus with U-verse." In Phil’s piece, he talks about the idea of running U-verse in HD on a wireless network using Ruckus Wireless’ new MediaFlex 7000 gear, noting how well it actually worked.

I’m not here to challenge Phil’s technical expertise, or the notion that in theory (repeat theory) that you could do HDTV over a wireless network, not only making it more convenient for consumers, but much easier and less expensive and time consuming for the AT&T installation crew when the come to your home.

I am here, though to challenge what amounts to nothing more than pure common sense given the following issues:

1.    Phil’s house is not my house.  I don’t know his set-up, how far the TVs are from the set top box, what kinds of walls he has, and where his microwave oven, let alone the hair dryer in the bathroom may sit.  I live in a two-story home.  Maybe Phil lives in a one-story ranch-style, or a mansion.  Or a condo.  Or a reconverted warehouse. The key is WiFi performance varies dramatically by home. Just because it works in Phil’s home doesn’t make it scalable to every home.

2.    Phil is an exception and not the rule.  Just like any early adapter, it sure looks and sounds cool to do this, but AT&T (and Verizon) are after millions of customers who reliably want TV, not just a few who want to push the limits of technology.

3.    While WiFi’s capability is growing, so are bandwidth demands. Telco’s like AT&T and Verizon are already been requesting 400 mbit/s of performance. You have to ask yourself, why do they need that much bandwidth? It’s probably because they are planning new applications we don’t know about yet.  The reality is this:  WiFi doesn’t even get us reliability to today’s requirements. It won’t for tomorrow’s either.

4.      Service providers are all about service.  As long as my service flows seamlessly, I never call them.  And if they can’t fix or diagnose a problem over the phone (or on my wired home network) then a costly human intervenes, or even worse has to pay a service call to my home. WiFi is not ready for prime time as a backbone for IPTV services.

5.     WiFi simply doesn’t deliver the kind of reliable performance telco’s like AT&T require. To achieve the kind of reliable performance telcos demand, they need 100% excess capacity. This means if you need 40 mbit/s, you gotta have have 80 mbit/s always available in throughput. Today’s WiFi can’t deliver that kind of performance.  Not now and as AT&T starts to add more service offerings to my U-verse package, not in the future either.

In concluding his article, Phil begs the question:  how much are consumers willing to subsidize the privilege of having a wireless network for the IPTV service? 

Good question, but the wrong question.

I think the real question should be what kind of new and innovative services would consumers pay for, via their TV on a wired network?  How can AT&T leverage a small-scale enterprise network in one’s home to further differentiate its product and service offering from cable and satellite providers?

All of the above aside, I personally think we are used to, and gladly accept the use and functionality of WiFi for a computer or laptop in the home. 

I think we are also conditioned to having a TV wired to “something” that brings us even higher resolution images, new applications, and at a time when the cost of gas is beginning to make a permanent impact on our society, new ways to work and play from home.

Alanzo from AT&T Calls To Advise Me that They Dispatched the Repair Job to Someone on Vacation

Yes, re-read the headline in this post.  It's now 4:50 PM. 

I just got a call from someone named Alanzo.  He called me to let me know that help was on the way (I guess they borrowed this from John Edwards who used to say that "hope was on the way....")

He apologized for the mishap, but now as it turns out, AT&T dispatched the call to someone who was actually on vacation.

Yes, dear kind readers this is true. 

I asked Alanzo how they could do this and his response was that he did not know.

I realize that AT&T is really a great company and all, but this goes beyond the call of duty when it comes to communications and entertainment services....

Oh....I then called Gloria back at the 214-869-4488 number she gave me and all I got was voice mail.

Stay tuned for more.

Using or Getting a .Mac Account? Get a Good Name That Goes Well With .Me

I've been a long time .Mac user.  And now with introduction of MobileMe and the new @me.com naming convention, here's your chance to get in early on having a great email address name.

For me, .Mac has been great place to store content and have an alternative email address (or an alias) when needed.

Now with the changeover to the .Me platform, if you are a .Mac user, don't forget that you get an additional 5 alias addresses. 

If you want to get a new alias address, think about what might go well with yourname@me.com.

Me?  I now have....or what will soon be:

• alanweinkrantz at me dot com
• weinkrantz at me dot com
• uverse at me dot com
• itsyouandme at me dot com
• seeits at me dot com
  

And if you are not a .Mac user and want to become one soon, sign up now, and create a great name for yourself!

Aside From Gizmodo, CrunchGear, Engadget And The Like, Put The NY Times' "Bits" On Your Reading List

I am a huge fan of blogs such as Engadget, CrunchGear, Gizmodo.   

While these well written, and often irreverent, I am also a big fan of The New York Timem's "BITS" blog.   

BITS- which stands for Business, Technology, Innovation and Society, takes a broader look beyond just gizmos, gadgets and toys. 

Their writers cover serious topics about how business uses and is affected by innovation, disruption and new technology.

Worth Reading!

EngadgetHD Reports St. Louis Now Has 2HD Stream Capability

This one I missed.....

EngadgetHD is reporting that St. Lewis now offers U-verse with 2 HD Streams.

In other words, you can have 2 HD TVs in your house and have 2 streams coming in at the same time.

That's a big deal!

AT&T’s Stockholder Meeting- More Like a Town Hall Meeting – Part 1

I’ve just come back from attending the AT&T stockholder meeting in San Antonio.  There’s lots to tell and share, and in the interest of time and in the interest of getting at least one post up on my blog, I am going to do two posts- one today and another one early next week.

Before I begin, just a caveat- if you are looking for insight on earnings per share, news on when the 3G iPhone will ship, and new technologies coming out of AT&T labs, you’ve come to the wrong place. 

This post is a quick summary of some of AT&T’s Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson’s comments in his State of the Company.  Next week, I will post on my observations of what I observed to be more of a town hall meeting, as opposed to this event being a traditional stockholder’s meeting.

And so the meeting came to order…
The meeting comprised of introductions, stockholder proposals, a presentation by the Chairman & CEO and an open microphone session for attendees.

First order of business was to define and articulate what AT&T was all about.  Last year, the company’s mantra was about being a communications and entertainment services company.  This year, with Randall at the helm, there was a subtle, but important shift in the message:  he wants AT&T to connect people with their world, where they live and work, and do it better than anyone else.

He proudly stated that AT&T was:

• Numero Uno in Wireless

• Numero Uno in Broadband

• Numbero Uno in Residential

• Numbero Uno in being the first in the U.S. to lead in TV over IP (IPTV)

• Numbero Uno in Yellow Pages

He stated that he was ramping up on $20 Billion in future investments in four key areas:

1.  Mobility – he emphasized the growth of the wireless side of the house.  And with the melding of  Cingular/BellSouth into the company, it’s full steam ahead.

2.  Consumer and Business Broadband -  he highlighted the fact that consumer broadband traffic was up 140%  in the past two years and the recent launch of its alliance with Cisco in deploying its TelePresence solution was now under way.

3.  AT&T’s “footprint.”  Randall talked about AT&T’s “footprint” citing the example of the deal they just announced with Starbucks. By the company’s footprint, he described making WiFi available in more places (like Starbucks) and the transition to GSM so you can have global cellular coverage.  Case in point:  in March I was in Israel.   I walk off the plane, and CellCom, AT&T’s partner in Israel picks me up and can hand off calls to me 1/3 of the world away.

There was one element of AT&T’s footprint strategy that Randall left out:  it’s footprint on the retail         landscape of America with its AT&T stores and its newer flavor of AT&T Experience stores. 
With all its money, technology smarts, and way cool iPhones, I have always contended that AT&T’s retail presence is a key competitive advantage that only Verizon can match up with.  Retail draws traffic.  It educates customers and cross-sells new services.  That’s something the cable companies aren’t doing.

4.  IP Networking.  Randall talked about the vision to deploy IP over three screens (hence the name of this blog) and how the core of its IP residential play, U-verse is now reaching close to 400,000 American homes like mine.  In May of this year, I will be starting my third year as a U-verse customer and look forward to continued upgrades with new services such as Whole Home DVR.

After his state of the company, the microphone was opened up to the audience.  I will get into some of the questions and issues addressed in my post next week.

Finally, a nice finishing touch to the meeting- a free $5.00 gift card from Starbucks; thanks Randall.

What Randall did not talk about…

Maybe it was matter of time, or the fact that as a publicly held company, you can’t go around publicly touting what’s coming down the pipeline, but here are a few of my own takes on what I think will matter for the balance of 2008.

• The 3G iPhone (expected sometime this summer) will not only be popular with consumers, but will begin adoption (limited) by corporate America because of its support for enterprise class applications.
• Whole Home DVR on U-verse will illustrate yet another feature of managing video over IP, and the growing importance of having the equivalent of a small enterprise network in your home.
• A few more global acquisitions.  I don’t know what they are or what they will be, but AT&T is not just an American phone company.  Look for its presence and brand to grow worldwide.
• It’s alliance with Cisco and the deployment of its TelePresence solution will help AT&T in disrupting some of its competitors.
• San Antonio will continue to be a Petri dish for testing new types of telecommunications technologies in AT&T’s own back yard.  More on that to come.

And more to come....stay tuned.

Photo of AT&T Chairman, Randall Stephenson and me at this morning's annual stockholder meeting, courtesy of AT&T.