HDTV Reviews

AT&T have launched it’s HD service and has begun to broadcast HDTV as part of it’s U-verse IPTV offering. AT&T says its San Antonio customers can now buy a package of 25 HD channels for an extra $10 a month. Local rival Time Warner Cable Inc. says it’s offering 24 HD channels.

The service launched earlier this year initially only offered standard definition channels. At the time of the launch the company promised to add HD. Now AT&T will offer more than 25 HD channels. AT&T is offering a two month promotion for new HD customers to receive free HD service for two months. After that, the service will be $10 per month.

“We’re pleased with the progress we’re seeing from our customers in the field,” says Microsoft TV spokesman Jim Brady. “Right now AT&T and [Deutsche Telekom] are offering commercial HD services with the platform. IPTV is a better TV experience that will get increasingly better and more differentiated over time.”

The speed of Time Warner’s data offering has a slight edge on AT&T’s. The Roadrunner connection in Time Warner’s triple-play bundle is 7-Mbit/s downstream, while the fastest of AT&T’s three tiers of data service is 6-Mbit/s downstream. The U-verse bundle with 6-Mbit/s downstream costs $119 per month, according to the company’s Website.

U-verse is available only in San Antonio, but AT&T says the service will launch in up to 20 more markets by the end of this year. Houston — where AT&T has held a limited HDTV trial — will be the next market to go live with a commercial service, the carrier says.
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