Ever since at&t announced that they were rolling out their version of fiber (VDSL?), I anxiosly awaited any news about price, availability, etc. I got excited when it beta’d in San Antonio. I said then and there that I would ditch Time Warner and go straight to at&t. Months passed. I bought a house, got Time Warner and at&t dsl. I bitched about TW and finally switched to Dish, still saying that as soon as this new at&t service rolled out, I’d hop on. Whoo Boy. More time passed. I upgraded my dish stuff. I grew to love it’s dvr (sorry, ReplayTV. You rocked out with your cock out, but now it’s time to go) and plethora of programming. Finally U-Verse was announced! Yay! Then “whole home dvr!” AWESOME Oh wait. It’s not really whole house dvr. It’s more like a NAS (network addressed storage). I can record with the ONE dvr and playback on other set top boxes. But I can’t pause/rewind live tv on the non-dvr boxes. Hrm. Total deal killer. Oh well. I can still get the faster internet speeds right? No. All or nothing. ARGH! That pissed me off. I would check the website repeatedly to see if I could order it seperately. I had money, I wanted to give it to you at&t. But no. More time passed and finally someone told me you can pick and choose what you want. SWEET! I placed my order for internet only U-verse on March 10th, to be installed on Martch 18th (due to high demand in my area). I knew I could get it because a) the website told me I could b) at&t dug up the end of my street and did….stuff…to the big box months ago. Now, as we all know, that don’t mean shit. They called to confirm no less than three times, sent a postcard, a letter and two emails. By God, something was happening on the 18th. Whether it meant I was getting hooked up or the tech would show and say “whoopsie! too far from the fiber drop!” I would not know until the 18th. Between 12 and 2. For a 4-6 hour install. Blargh.
I leave work around noon. Thinking, if they call while I’m on my way home, no biggie. They usually call 30 minutes beforehand. I get home, have lunch and wait. And wait. And wait. 2:30pm I get a call from the installer. “Be there in 30 minutes.” Okay. At 2:45 he rings the doorbell. We discuss where I wanted the drop (where the old drop was) and he headed out to the big box at the end of the street. He comes back about 30 minutes later and futzes around with the box on the side of the house. That’s another 45 or so minutes. Damn, they weren’t kidding about the install times. The guy at least looked like he knew what was going on. Then he comes inside and does…stuff…to the jack and sets up the biggest goddamn consumer modem I’ve ever seen. I’ll take pictures for comparison later. He verifies that I can get connected and register and all that. He hands me a packet with information that is about 90% tv stuff. Not his fault. He also tells me he filed a trouble ticket to get my outside lines reinstalled/fixed since they were old and it would probably stop me from getting a full 18 down I ordered (he has never seen anyone get a full 18 down). It is now 5pm. He leaves and I go about adjusting my network to my needs. I run a speed test. 17.5 down, almost a full 2 up. Fuck. Yes. So. Internet only installs, no extra jacks, no weirdness, with a guy who seems to know what’s up: about 2 hours. And yes, you can use your own router behind the gateway.
Thank you, at&t for letting me give you money for what I want and not have to play the “I want it all–oops, cancel TV and leave internet, k thx” game.