I figured I’d follow up to my previous post about U-Verse since it’s been a few months and say that I am back on XFinity.  U-Verse just couldn’t make the system work.  Let this be a warning, though, if you are having problems with your signal dropping or “retraining” a lot in the first few weeks, just give it back and don’t bother with letting them try to fix it for a few months.  Basically, they screwed with me for a few months until the fourth tech they had out there was straight with me.   Luckily because of the issue I had and because it was distance related they couldn’t hold me to my one year agreement so I was able to get out of it.

Overall I was pretty disappointed with their technical product.  The wireless receiver was nice and so was the number of HD channels.  XFinity has a highly superior Internet product, however, and that was more important.  AT&T’s customer support was pretty friendly and accommodating, surprisingly.  Although they should be considering the hassle this caused.  In the end, I don’t really see how AT&T will compete in this space. Their U-Verse product is based on VDSL which has some serious distance issues.  I’m not that far from the central box in my neighborhood and yet they still couldn’t even deliver 19Mbps to my door (max!) from which 3-4Mbps would be reserved for television at the minimum.  It gets worse, though.  When the system is “retraining” due to noise your phone goes out.  So if you have an emergency you can’t even call 911!

I do wish XFinity would let me use HBO GO on my XBox 360, though.  For some reason it’s not authorized to do so.  Boo.   If XFinity could provide a wireless receiver similar to how AT&T’s works that would solve the last of my issues.  Oh, and drop the price on 50Mbps service, too.  🙂