AT&T launches TV service | Tech News on ZDNet: "AT&T is officially in the TV market.
The company on Monday made its U-verse TV service commercially available to 5,000 homes in San Antonio.
Until this week, AT&T's TV service was available to only a handful of consumers in that city, the first of many on the list of U-verse prospects. AT&T expects to offer the service to a total of 15 to 20 markets by the end of the year. The company has said it plans to spend $4.6 billion through 2008 to bring television and high-speed Internet services to almost 19 million homes.
At least initially, AT&T's service, which is based on Internet Protocol technology, will be very similar to what is already offered by cable companies. The starting price for packages is $69 a month and goes up to $124, depending on Internet speeds and whether the customer opts for premium-channel packages.
AT&T is offering three months of free U-Verse service to customers as part of its promotional push. It's also marking down its installation fee to $20 from $95.
This offering is on par with those of its cable rivals. But AT&T claims that it offers customers more for their money, including fast channel changing, video-on-demand, three set-top boxes, a digital video recorder, a picture-in-picture feature that allows viewers to surf channels without switching channels and an interactive program guide.
But some features, such as DVR service for the entire home and high-definition TV programming, won't be available until October. "
(Read Original Article - Via Tech News on ZDNet.)