AT&T UVerse and Verizon FiOS are the next generation of television, telecommunications, and high-speed internet providers. They use very similar technology to provide customers with a feature rich multimedia TV, telephone, and internet experience. They are very similar, but AT&T and Verizon are using different business tactics and technology to woo customers from cable and satellite providers.
Technology
Verizon has decided to deploy fiber optic connections directly to subscriber homes. This is called fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP). Deploying FTTP connectivity for residential customers is very expensive, and laying fiber from Verizon’s existing equipment to the individual residences is very time consuming. Since Verizon is not making use of the existing copper wiring between their field equipment and the residence, they will lose a lot of time laying fiber connections, and it will take an extremely long time for a widespread roll-out of FiOS.
AT&T has decided to make use of their existing fiber optic infrastructure and the existing copper wiring between their field equipment and the residence, which is known as fiber-to-the-node (FTTN). This results in a much quicker deployment time, much lower cost for consumers, and much lower initial out-of-pocket costs from AT&T’s coffers. AT&T also has the option of switching from FTTN to FTTP once the overall need for additional bandwidth rises, and AT&T can reinvest funds from existing customers to use for future upgrades.
Price
Verizon is one of the most expensive communications providers in the United States. They stake their reputation on reliability, expansive networks, and a wide variety of services. They turn most of the cost of upgrades, expansion, and maintenance over to the consumer. Since Verizon has built their brand around these concepts, they also spend a lot of time and energy on deploying the newest technologies when they are ready for consumer usage. This is what drove them to offer residential FTTP connections before any other national carrier. You should not expect them to engage in active price competition with the local cable and satellite companies, but they may attempt to do so with AT&T since U-Verse is based on similar technology.
AT&T is more sensitive to existing market trends for pricing in the cellular, television, high-speed internet, and telephony markets, and they tend to stay in the middle of the road. They have also been known to provide relatively generous discounts to subscribers that use more than one of their services. Since AT&T’s U-Verse can also take advantage of AT&T’s cellular phone technology, expect additional incentives for existing AT&T cellular subscribers. AT&T is also taking advantage of existing infrastructure, so they can reduce the cost to the customer in the short term, and use their subscriber base to their advantage when it is time to upgrade to a pure fiber network.
Availability
Deploying FTTP connections is time consuming and expensive, so expect slow but steady growth for Verizon’s FiOS services. AT&T is gaining subscribers at a very high rate, because they are able to expand their coverage quicker. In the next two years expect a lot of markets that were previously monopolized or dominated by Comcast, Cox, or Time Warner to see both Verizon and AT&T enter the market. This will completely change the face of television, high-speed internet, and telephone pricing.
Customer Service Experience
AT&T U-Verse and Verizon’s FiOS were ranked at the top of the list for Customer Satisfaction by J.D. Power and Associates in 2008. The existing providers in many markets became complacent because there was little or no competition until U-Verse or FiOS was introduced. Expect all of the providers to raise their customer service standards very quickly to stay viable in a market with increased competition.
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
I go for U-verse primarily because there’s no contract required, it allows me to test the service first,..which no doubt about, I’m really impressed with the quality of image I’m receiving … plus the several apps they have…
In think the question is not what is the best today, but what is best for the future.
I would have say FiOS simply because of the limited braodband capibilities of U-verse. Let’s face it, dial-up was great back when the interent was simple, however is not even feasable for the average internet customer today download videos and other broadband media. FTTP (fiber-to-the-premises) provides an unlimited bandwidth capibilities which can not be delivered over the ‘last mile’ of copper.
Google has just announced an experiment to provide a competitively priced broadband 100 times what can be obtained by the average comsumer today. They’re plan is to go over FTTP and would exceed U-verse’s max bandwidth over copper.
Fios offers more that att i prefer fios
Read again, when you talk about “the question is not what is the best today, but what is best for the future”. The article’s author had it right that AT&T is delivering to a rapidly broadening and satisfied customer base with FTTN, and they can retroactively improve by deploying FTTP later. That strategy makes a lot of sense, and delivers a competitive advantage in my area over Time Warner Cable. While I’ve been waiting for years to hear when FIOS will appear in my area, I was surprised to learn recently that U-verse is already here! I’ll be dropping TWC like a hot potato at the end of this month.
And comments like “Fios offers more that att i prefer fios” add zero value to the discussion.
AT&T and FiOS is based on the same technology, fiber. It’s just that AT&T is growing faster because they only deliver FTTN which is much quicker. Verizon however, is going all the way by providing FTTP. In my opinion if you had a choice of AT&T U-Verse and cable, choose the best option, U-Verse. If HOWEVER you had the choice of U-Verse (how it is now, FTTN) and FiOS, chose the best option, FiOS. AT&T and FiOS are going to be great competitors once U-Verse upgrades to FTTP and both spread their services to almost all of US.
You should choose between FiOS and U-verse by how much you want to pay. Saying “FiOS pwns U-verse, choose FiOS” is like saying “Lexus is better than Chevy, so choose Lexus.” Yes well we’d all choose Lexus and we’d all choose FiOS if we unlimited amounts of cash in the bank, but we don’t so we make trade-offs.
I agree that Fios has an amazing (and in my opinion, superior) product, however I strongly incourage anyone thinking about getting this service to look at the hundreds of similiar complaints all over the internet before doing the plunge. Verizon is a huge umbrella company that divides all their services with different companies under the same name and while their cellular in WONDERFUL, their internet and Fios, in particular, are horiffic! I have spent all day reading on this and after my brief experience with customer support (one and a half months trying to install and upgrade from their subpar dsl service)also believe they are contemptuous and dishonest, at best. I am very happy to see they have competition and I have choices.
I have nothing to disagree with the article and all people is saying. I am a very happy FIOS user and I have learned that wherever is AT&T is not Verizon and vice-versa. So the area I wanted to move to is served by AT&T and for what I am reading looks like AT&T U-verse has kind of good service, but still not equal or better than Verizon. So what is worrying me is that I have to move to an apartment and happened to me that I had TWC installed before and my neighboors hanged from my cable too cousing me to loose my conexion several times at day. So if AT&T is using the same cables and structure that cable companies left or are leaving then I am running the same risk by having AT&T services vs Verizon that has their conexion in the ground directly installed inside my apartment what stopped all my previous problems and never had any incident with my conexion since then. Well hope someone gave me an input on how reliable is AT&T U-Verse as far as running the risk of having someone stealing my internet.
AS A TELECOM SERVICE TECH FOR 1 OF THE ABOVE…..I WILL TELL YOU FIBER TO THE PREM IS THE BEST WAY… AND IN NEWER HOUSING TRACKS DEVELOPERS HAVE WORKED WTIH EITHER A TELECOM OR CABLE TV PROVIDER 2 BE THE SOLE PROVIDER OF SERVICE ONCE HOMES ARE COMPLETED…. THE LIMIT OF OF FIBER HASNT BEEN REACHED YET & ITS 40 PLUS YRS OLD TECH FROM BELL LABS… LAST MILE COOPER(WHICH HASNT BEEN MAINTAINED PROPERLY SINCE BREAK UP OF MA BELL) HAS LIMITS & IF YOU GET A FAIRLY NEW INSTALLER GOD HELP YOU GETTIN PHONE TV DSL TO ALL WORK SAME AS BEFORE THE SWITCH FROM SEPARATE SATELLITE/CABLE TV/DSL/PHONE… AS TIME GOES ON THE ONLY DRAWBACK WILL BE COST MONOPOLY…TELECOM WILL OWN RIGHTS TO WHAT TRAVELS ON THEIR NETWORK TO YOUR HOME/CELLPHONE
I have been with Fios for almost 3 years. The product is great. I never had any problems. However, their customer service it terrible. You get passed around from department to department when you ask a question. Not to mention my rate has doubled since I started with them. When I moved last June, they made the transistion very difficult. Installer never showed up. When one finally did show, he was rude and unhelpful. I have had someone’s Wireless bill added to my bill. Horrible, horrible experience. I have now signed up for Uverse since it is also offered in my area. I now have more channels, and I am saving $50 a month.
I find it hard to believe that AT&T customer service was highly rated by J.D Power & Assoc. I have a thick file resulting from on-going problems with AT&T high speed internet,telephone and TV services. When we talked with a sales representative about switching from Diish Network to Uverse we were assured that we could get the same benifits for the same amount money. Later we found that with AT&T Uverse phone services we were given a relatively low number of calling minutes monthly and after that we were charged by the minute for calls made. We had never been told about the limited number of minutes deal and quickly discovered that it raised our monthly phone bill substantially. We also learned after hooking up Uverse that our promised $55.45 cost for their U200 program was only a short term promotion and that the real cost of that program would soon increase to $69.00. Thentheir waa the promise of a 6 month HBO package that turned out to be a 90 day promotion. right this minute at 8:00 p.m, July 12th, 2011 I have been on the phone waiting to speak to a customer service representative for an HOUR AND 15 MINUTES and I am still waiting. if this is good customer service I’d hate to see anything worse! I wouldn’t recommend AT&T service to a dog!! And, I no longer have any confidence in J.D. Power & Assoc.
U-VERSE IS A SUB PAR PRODUCT COMPARED TO FIOS & CUSTOMER SERVICE HAS GONE THE WAY OF THE DINOSAUR FOR BOTH COMPANIES….BATE & SWITCH IS THE NORMAL DAY TO DAY PROFIT PLAN OF TELECOM TODAY… TRUST ME KEEP YOUR DSL, CELLPHONE, TV-CABLE, LANDLINES SEPARATE!!!. FIBER TO THE PREMISE IS HE FUTURE BUT THE DRAWBACK IT HOW GREEDY WILL THE TELECOM-CABLE PROVIDER BE IN 3-10YRS
just switched to uverse do not do it the picture quality is poor compared to fiber optic my HDTV now looks low definition. DO NOT use a company with copper cable if you can get fiber optic.
FIOS may be a better product – but what’s the point of that if it’s not available in YOUR area?
Moving to a an area where FIOS is available is not an option for me…so, U-VERSE it is…
Uverse delivers their service thru FTTN and FTTP…. ALso, AT&T has the capability of getting up to 100mbps on the copper network although distance does play a significant factor.
ATT has the WORST customer service in all my dealings with various vendors…takes hours to straighten out even minor complaints and they don’t monitor any of their workers so I have been disconnected or been told it’s another department’s responsibility and being pass around from one dept. to another…not only is copper cable older technology but their corporate structure is so backwards. I just wanted to switch my account from my married name back to my maiden name after my divorce, they had to create a new account and my internet was down for nearly 2 weeks because someone got the order mixed up somehow…unbelievable!!!
We have Netzero DSL ,and yes it’s (1200 BPS) a bit slow ,and we get disconnected a lot ,but we are only paying $19.95 a month . The good wife thinks I should change to Verizon or ATT .I fried ATT for lying and not telling us that our unlimited plan had ended without telling us and then a Monster cell bill . “WOW” . Isn’t there a Internet provider that has a good speed for $20 to $29 a month? Thanks Dock in Orange California
i just checked pricing and offerings and FiOS blows UVerse away… dollar for dollar you FiOS gives you so much more… wish i could get it
Frank you stated that a d2d rep misrepresented the product to you. That’s unfortunate but that doesn’t effect the quality of the product. I work in customer service and deal with customers that are given incorrect quotes all the time. It is unfortunate but has nothing to do with the quality of the uverse service. People always want the cheapest, well those customers should go with the local cable company but for those who would rather have quality uverse is better. I would keep uverse if it was twice as much as my previous provider because I love the service. Cable cannot offer broadband integration like uverse can. The standard def picture with uverse us better than the hd picture from my previous provider. AT&T never says they are the cheapest but they do say you get the most value and that is true. Uverse gives you the ability to take TV with you and with mobile broadband(iPad,iPhone,android, etc) that is huge and cable cannot compete. Uverse should cost WAY more than cable but the best part if it all is I’m saving money with uverse. I pay $156 a month for 24 meg broadband over 450 channels with every premium in three rooms with total home dvr. A lot of customers would think that is high but for everything I get it is a steal and I would pay $250. Anybody that would go back to cable from fios or uverse obviously hasn’t taken advantage of all the features. I will never have anything but iptv again
Choosing to go with FIOS or with Uverse is hypothetical. You are either in Verizon land or ATT land until you move.
I think that verizon Fios is way better than u-verse.
Fios only takes about an hour or 2 to set up while u-verse took me at least 2 weeks.
u-verse company kept telling us that we have to buy more cables and after we did. they were unneeded. They also told us that we have the best signal out of all their customers, but when ever i turned on the Tv the internet directly went down and there was no signal what so ever… We kept calling them back and they told us they would come at certain times to fix it, but they never came on the required time we asked them to. then finally we got rid of it and got verizon fios. The internet is soo much faster, and it also takes about an hour. Get fios everyone.
I am a Bell Atlantic/Verizon employee. Verizon will never compete on cost. They will always win IF the contest for VALUE for your dollar. But as the gentleman previously said. Can you afford it? The competition here is Comcast and Verizon. I am in the Pittsburgh market. This town isn’t even comppletely wired yet. Right now FiOS has 18 million homes passed and 4 million customers. They have a fair anount of the foundation built but not completed. They will complete that Phase. So there is a great deal of marketing work to be done. I am contemplating working for FiOS. I will be a Director of Marketing I will never ever print the word cable on anything that passes thru my office. Vz is the next generation. Unfortunately after Phase I which is finishing up, there is no phase II. There will be no more new construction. So unless you live the phase I area in Verizon foot print you probably won’t get the opportunity to experience the next generaton in television entertainment. Now you may be in an area that has not been completed, you will have the service at sme point. If you cant get FiOS spend $2000 on your plasma TV, but if you don’t have FiOS…why bother. You can buy the best cookware but if the cut of meat is lousy, still tastes like hamburger.