AT&T Rolls Out U-verse TV in St. Louis
Telco to Take On Incumbent Cable Operator Charter Communications In Its Hometown
By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/10/2007 5:40:00 PM
Telco AT&T deployed its U-verse-TV Internet-protocol-TV service in the St. Louis market, bringing new competition to incumbent cable operator Charter Communications.
U-verse TV, which delivers an MPEG-4-based TV service over existing phone lines, is available in parts of the City of St. Louis, Ballwin, Bridgeton, Chesterfield, Clayton, Creve Coeur, Florissant, Kirkwood, Maryland Heights, Mehlville, Oakville, Olivette, Sappington, Shrewsbury, St. Charles, St. Peters, University City and Webster Groves. AT&T said it will expand the service's footprint in St. Louis on an ongoing basis.
The U-verse TV service offers packages with up to 320 channels and more than 30 HD channels. AT&T is offering promotional deals for new customers that include free HD service for one year (HD programming costs $10 per month with U-verse TV) or cash back. The telco is also offering bundled high-speed-data packages with downstream speeds of 1.5, 3 and 6 megabits per second.
Last month, AT&T increased by $500 million its U-verse capital expenditure estimate for the 2007-08 period to $4.5-$5 billion, but also revised lower its homes-passed estimate by 1 million to 17 million. AT&T's subscriber roll for U-verse TV stands at just 126,000 after adding 51,000 subscribers in the third quarter.
