PS Kivs- we also had Verizon and they were HORRIBLE. Dumped them. Went to Sprint and have been very happy.

Kivsquest...
I live WAY out in the country and have DSL. I also have horrible ancient phone lines.
I have a Sprint Cellular Modem. I bought it for $150 bucks and for $30/month have unlimited download and it is fast, fast, fast. Very reliable service. i don't need TV- I can watch TV over the net.
Evansville has this crap service called "litewire" where they are famous for being VERY rude and expensive. I think if more people in Evansville knew that Sprint had cellular modems they would dump Litewire like a hot potato.
Especially since Litewire has this huge ugly white box and wires you have to run all over your house. My cellular modem is the size of a pencil eraser an sits on top of my computer. That's *it*.

Cherry Picking? Don't forget AT&T must(also by law) serve phone lines to every farm and country home in its serving areas. Charter does not. Any farmers out there in richmond have charter phone or high speed internet? I think not.

ANOTHEROPINION: I know plenty of people in Jville's trailer parks that have AT&T. Everyone's gotta have a place to live, no matter how modest. But my point is, what are you considering high end? Jville? Whatever.

At&T's customer service and billing departments suck!! Will never ever go back to them. Charter has been great never a problem with service or billing.

localboysince1968: we moved to the country 15 years ago when DSL was unheard of even in the city. We have Verizon wireless and it doesn't give us the speed or full capabilities of DSL. It should not be a factor of "giving up" when you move to the country. They should provide services everywhere is they want the business.

wtp: I have checked with them and just did so last week.....still no service:-(

The charter phone has a battery back-up so if the power goes out you still have phone service. I pay $145 a month for TV (HD service, All the movie channels except showtime and the movie channel), Highspeed internet connection 3mps, and telephone with unlimited calling long distance and local.

I have Charter for TV and Internet and ATT for phone and Internet (running a server with a static ip address at home). I won't go with an "everything" package from ATT due to their slow service repair times and I won't use a Charter ip phone service, because I don't want a blizzard on a winter weekend to turn my phone connection to mush if all my neighbors stay home and surf the Internet.
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I don't like ATT's ability to cherry-pick neighborhoods while Charter has to offer service to everyone in the city and I'm tired of ALL the TV signal providers not offering ala carte channel selection. DirectTV's extra channels all seem to be Shop-At-Home networks. I wish I could scoop up all their marketers who came up with "introductory" rates, dress them up as Kosher hams, and drop them in Tehran for Halloween.

Charter is in massive debt. Their stock is at total junk status; trading at $0.40 a share (was over $5.00 a few years ago). If Paul Allen did not own the company, they would have filled chapter 11 a long time ago. If he cuts ties, and they go under, one must wonder if they will get a government bailout? Heck; everyone else is!

I only have Charter for internet but have Direct TV. Charter's motto is to offer you incentives to get you to switch over and then the heck with you. As an existing customer, they could care less because they have you now. I spent a considerable amount of time on the phone with them before they finally saw I was going to drop them and THEN they offered me a reasonable rate for internet. I will never go back to them for tv. The people at the office could care less about your concerns. Competition is good but not if it is offered at the same price as Charter.

AT&T only has to serve areas of this city it wants to. (translation: they want the high end areas because they can sell multiple services and high end packages there.)

Banks used to do this with mortgages, refusing to lend in certain areas. It's called "red-lining" and (rightly so) its has long been illegal for banks practice.

Not so for AT&T, the city has said they will be alllowed to "cherry pick". I guess competition is good for those who can afford it.

No thanks...I'll stick with Charter.

Well I live off of Milton Ave and it says the service is not available for me... I wish it was cause I am really interested to see there prices compared to Charter. I am so sick of Charter .... and I could write you a novel on my experience but I just really think you cant get good service anywhere with anyone anymore.

thanks pack !

I'm in Milton and was one of the 1st with CenturyTel's high speed internet service. I am quite pleased with the service. I also have Direct TV... between the 2 bills I pay, I'm still paying less than Charter and evidently AT&T.

I will NEVER go back to Charter. They are rude, crude and inconsiderate. Our driveway has one of their large "box-thingamajiggies" over it. They have made multiple upgrades, I guess... and I've had multiple flat tires from the morons working on it! I took a small coffee can of scrap metal and sharp, tire piercing scraps down to their front desk, over on Plainfield. The gal just looked at me and LITERALLY said "SO?" That was when I HAD Charter years ago. I canceled my subscription right then and there!

Now I will call their office and tell them they will be reported for dangerous / hazardous material left on city property (the land easement and road) if they can't clean the (ahem...) CRAP up!

I'm content with Centurytel and Direct TV...

History.....try using gethuman.com. You type in the business you want and it tells you how to bypass the waits. I actually used it on AT&T and got directly in.

I've called there customer service twice in the last 2 months -- average hold time was about 1-1/2 hours. Be prepared to wait if you have a problem.

That's one thing nice about charter they have a local office so, if you have a problem you can actually talk to a person face to face. They usually are pretty good about being fair. I had AT&T for a while and went a round and round with them about charges that were on the bill. I ended up dropping them. The customer service was horrible.

It is against the law for cable companies to provide service to only a portion of their customers in a city. To bad AT&T doesn't have to follow that rule. I wonder how long it will be before all of Janesville can get U-verse?

I got up to $130.00 /month on their website sign up and that didn't include voice! You need a receiver for each tv to see anything. Might go to the store to get quote though. I do not change service just because the first quote sounds good. Do your research.

whybesad: in November there will be more than 75 HD programs see below:

Beginning Nov. 3, U-verse TV customers will receive up to 30 new HD channels at no additional charge as part of their existing HD service subscription, depending on their programming package. With the additions, U-verse TV offers more than 75 HD channels -- exceeding the HD channel lineups offered by the major local cable providers in every U-verse market.

reference: New York Times

URL to full article
http://markets.on.nytimes.com/research/s...

Beware of AT&T's "bundle" packages. I have the internet and phone service bundle. Since I got my service in May, I have been charged twice for the internet EVERY MONTH. I have to call and fight with them to get the charge removed. I started out with a $60/month bill. Last month was $130. They have changed my bundle twice without my knowledge or consent. When I called to complain, I was given the runaround. I usually spend about 3 hours a month on the phone with these operators, and nothing has changed. Worthless company in my opinion. They screw ya just as much as Charter does.

I get the feeling that paying for tv, telephone, and internet bundles is like paying for an airline ticket. It seems like everyone pays a different price for the same thing.

I just tried to save money with at&t.Nada.They sent me a flyer,saying,if I dropped voice telephone service and used my line for DSL only I could save money.When I called they said they would be happy to charge me $10.00 more per month to drop voice service.I did say, you are screwing the customer before ending the conversation.

Yes, you can get HD for only $10! It gives you 45 HD Channels and includes your local channels!

I found that the prices were much higher than charter. Does anyone know if HD is available with AT&T?

I'm glad you enjoy it smashbox22. I believe I was probably the one who signed you up for it in the Janesville Mall based on your description of what you signed up for. I can't wait until I can get the services too, instead of just selling it! -Randy

I just made the switch from Charter to UVERSE and I am so happy! I got my internet (3.0), tv (U200 Channels - includes locals), and home phone (all distance) for $119 and it included the DVR! With Charter I was paying close to $190! I am so pleased with the setup/installation people, they explained EVERYTHING and the service I received in the Janesville Mall store! Great Job! Make the switch, you won't be dissappointed!

I can tell you on a personal note, I was very unhappy with Charter's service and made the switch within the last 8-10 months to AT&T. I couldn't have made a wiser decision. The prices are more budget friendly.

I don't know about this whole U-verse stuff, but I live down by the Job Center and am quite happy with my AT&T service!

I will be looking at this also. My Charter Expanded Basic, DVR and Internet is now over $130 a month. at&t's prices are NOT a promotional rate.

As for the rant about Obama, must be someone still using dial-up!!!!!

I live out in the country on the South side of town and I have DSL. This only came when a switcher was placed on the South Side of town. I have had it for about 2 1/2 yrs now and really love. Check with AT&T to see if it is available in the country where you live. I kept doing this until I was told I could have the service.

The typical DSL line (aDSL) can only sustain its signal for a maximum of around 18,000 feet from the local POP. sDSL can carry the signal further, but it costs more and even if you're within range you still need to have digital phone lines (AT&T's phone lines in the country surrounding Janesville are all analog; however, I have noticed them making markings for fiber installations in La Prairie for the past few years).
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TDS offers what they call xDSL which is usable by people in La Prairie, and I would imagine other areas of Janesville. But the last I heard about that was three years ago.
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My concern with AT&T is their willingness to work with the government and hand them information whenever the government wants it (re: illegal wire tapping). As it stands, a lot of the nation's Internet travels over an AT&T-operated fiber line at one point or another. Charter recently suspended a program where they would inspect the content of the data you are receiving and insert their own ads into the websites based on your viewing habits (this program wasn't tested in Janesville). That proved the technology exists for unencrypted Internet traffic to be monitored by anyone who operates the lines your traffic goes over. Furthermore, AT&T supports a two-tiered Internet. That is, an Internet where content is served based on whether or not a website owner is willing to pay companies like AT&T additional money for preferential treatment. Those who do not get their website served to viewers at slow speeds. Read for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_neu...
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A little bit of Internet 101 on traffic routing: When you go to a website (like gazettextra.com), the request and response data is sent over the shortest route to your destination, which often means leaving the home network. For Charter users in Janesville, getting to the Gazette website requires going from Charter to Sprint. Should a company like AT&T be monitoring all transmitted data, they can so long as your traffic hits their network even for just one hop. This is already being done in the UK. All email (among other things) transmitted within the UK is being intercepted and stored to a database by the UK government.
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I don't want a company with a history of spying on US citizens for the Government handling my data.

except for MikeF he had an educated response

You all are full of it. I am glad this service is now available. I hate charter and plan checking out their rates.

At&t will be contracted to setup cable tv as part of Obama's plan to improve America's standing in the world. As we send our Military, and money to Africa they will be followed by College students that require student aid in which can only be obtain through the Peace Corp which will be providing aid with food/cable tv to the people of Africa.

"Internet packages range from 1.5 to 10 megabytes per second."

Internet speed is measured in megabits per second, not megabytes.

megabits = Mbps, megabytes = MBps

If this falls in line with AT&T's typical high quality customer service, it's gonna suck. I bet if you called them to change service they would give you an appointment somewhere between Monday and Friday, show up two weeks later and still screw it up blaming everything on the customer.

The question is, will U-verse really be any cheaper than cable?

kivsquest - AT&T will provide DSL in the country, when it is cost effective for the company to get a return on their investment. Those are things you knew you would give up when you made the choice to live in the country. You have the choice of their wireless card that will give you fast speeds untethered.

It is not just the run. It is also the networking equipment needed. You need to live within a certain distance of their switches. There also needs to be enough customers in the area to justify the cost of the equipment, which there usually isn't in a rural setting.
It has nothing to do with ATT not wanting to serve the rural areas, it is a cost factor and business decision.

Well they will but you have to pay for the run.

How nice for the city. So....when is AT&T going to bring DSL and this to those of us that live in the country?