U verse is awful.. avoid it

[dosage0]

Avoid U-Verse internet like the plague.  I recently moved to a building where the only internet available is AT&T U-verse in Los Angeles.  The best speed you can get is 3Mb/s which is awful enough, but it took them 5 weeks to get it installed.  First they said my area was dangerous because it was in an LA zip code and they would need to send out two technicians (to watch each others backs from the dangers of Foxs hills mall in Westchester?)  so they couldn't install it for 3 weeks.  Then they missed their first install date after 3 weeks and didn't bother to tell me.  I had to call them and then they said they would install it the next day.  The next day came and went and again I had to call them to find out what was wrong.  They said that they would immediately send out a technician the next morning (one technician this time??? He must know how to fight as well as 2 technicians) and so I took a day off of work.  The guy spoke barely any English and promptly told me the wires in my building were wrong and he wouldn't fix it.  He said contact my building to fix the wiring.

After talking to my building manager, he said AT&T is supposed to do all the wiring and they have for years in the building -- the lazy AT&T guy just didn't want to do it.  So I had to wait another week for a second AT&T tech to come and fix the issue.

OH!  And they make you pay $99 dollars for the proprietary AT&T modem.  I've never heard of a company making you pay for equipment to use their service.  I had FIOS before this and they didn't charge anything for the use of their expensive equipment.  I had to pay $99 dollars for a trash DSL modem.

And the blazing speed after all of this?  I get ~240 kb/s down and 50 kb/s up.  That translates to about 1.9Mb/s down and 0.4Mb/s up.

Awful.

[bauwls]

Yeah, that does sound pretty bogus. The information about needing two technicians does not explain the install date being 3 weeks out. Actually, U-verse is installed with a minimum timeframe of 3 days and reasons for pushing it out can include technician schedules, existing DSL at premise, constructing a new VRAD or adding a card, etc.

From what it sounds like, this was setup as a self-install. Per the install technician's M&P, they are supposed to knock on your door as a courtesy if there is an issue detected on the premise-side of the NID/terminal and offer to fix it for a charge. If this was a technician install (not a self-install), then it's the technician's responsibility to get your service hooked up on both AT&T's side and your side.

Purchasing a modem is pretty typical for DSL or.. ADSL2+ in this case. It's either pay the leasing fee with a company which varies from 5$/month to 10$/month with some ISPs or purchase a modem. In the end, if you plan on keeping U-verse for a year or more, purchasing is beneficial financially.

As for the speed, yeah the 3Mbps plan is pretty crap but that's just relative to your distance from the VRAD. You can call AT&T tech support and ask them if there are any line errors. If there are, they may be able to boost that 1.9Mbps down by correcting the line issue(even though it's within the range that you're paying for).