Is AT&T dropping U-verse?
Primarily, the topic of interest is whether or not AT&T is planning on dropping U-verse or not, and in determining this, it is vital to assess some of the changes that have taken place at AT&T Internet in the past few years. In the following, it is rather relevant to pay more attention to what has been happening.
The Background on U-verse
U-verse is AT&T’s integrated communications solution that delivers TV, internet service, or phone service through the use of IP technology that was started in 2006. It relies on ATT fiber optic and copper facilities to provide video telecommunication, data, and voice to customers employing fiber to the node or fiber to the premises technology.
U-verse enhanced millions of homes in AT&T’s 21-state operating region during the years. It provided channel packages, DVR choice, on-demand lineup, and other superior services to challenge cable television. But in 2016 it merged with DirecTV and I perceive they are more focused on satellite and streaming instead of U-verse.
The DirecTV Acquisition
When AT&T bought DirecTV at $49 billion in 2015, it emerged as the largest pay-TV operator in the country with a total of more than 25 million TV customers, who selected either DirecTV satellite service or U-verse.
However, analysts perceived it as a smart strategy where AT&T could ease its video services out of the long and costly fiber optic network investments as in the case with U-verse. Satellite TV does not have to put in place a physical last mile in the way that a fiber optic IPTV service would.
Therefore, after the mentioned merger, AT&T focused on offering new customers the DirecTV service while retaining the U-verse service for existing users. Skip forward to today, and we have now witnessed AT&T bring online AT&T TV, powered by DirecTV as its new primetime streaming service. More on that next.
AT&T Launches Streaming Service AT&T TV
For national coverage in the United States in January 2020, AT&T launched AT&T TV, a new live TV streaming service. Almost exactly like traditional DirecTV, AT&T TV offers most of the channel packages and price choices via internet transmission instead of satellite dish transmission.
With AT&T TV the company has the opportunity not only to attract customers with satellite TV but also those who do not use satellite TV service. And it is the new streaming TV service they are using as their new flagship instead of expanding out on the U-verse.
After that, AT&T started AT&T TV, which resulted in DirecTV and U-verse jointly losing more than 4 million premium TV viewers in 2020 owing to cord-cutting and switching to streaming. This raised further issues about the direction of the U-verse and DirecTV satellite services.
Many have been wondering whether AT&T is at last done with its U-verse offering.
The official response is that U-verse is not gone, even if AT&T has been fairly direct about the fact that AT&T TV, driven by DirecTV technology, is their newest priority in TV service providing.
Here is what AT&T said about the future of U-verse in an August 2020 earnings call
This means that ‘We are not actively promoting U-verse TV to prospective clients but we are still committed to our clients subscribed to this product.’
Thus, new promotions and customers are pointed to AT&T TV or DirecTV while the existing millions of users with U-verse plans seem to be permanently retained by AT&T … for now.
Since there are still more than 3 million customers with U-verse services (TV, in particular, based on mid-2020 statistics), it is unlikely that AT&T would simply ‘pull the plug’ on the service – there would have to be a ‘transition’ period.
But all their live streaming TV strategies now are directed towards improving AT&T TV and combining it with other new services such as HBO Max, developing their fiber-optic network, and 5G, the future seems bleak for the IPTV system that is U-verse in the long run, analysts believe. The service is quite outdated in streaming and does not support some of the latest offerings and affiliations from them.
This could only be a time telling, customers who are using U-verse as their home TV, internet, and phone provider should watch out for any changes in AT&T’s strategic direction in this market. As far as I know, it has already been stopped and probably we have to wait and see if AT&T wishes to continue supporting U-verse for customers that have it currently. However, one cannot help but feel that the gradual decline of U-verse is inevitable as ‘Streaming TV’ happens to be the way of the future.
The Bottom Line
In conclusion, I would like to sum up the information gathered – which is – no, AT&T has not stated they are pulling out of the U-verse TV service. However, all indicators suggest that att/uverse is being deprioritized and pushed slowly towards irrelevance in favor of AT&T’s streaming television future with AT&T TV powered by DirecTV taking center stage as their premier video offering going forward.
We may not witness the elimination of U-Verse anytime soon as millions are still using the service; however, tens of thousands of other video subscribers will very likely be shifted by AT&T to adopt streaming TV services. U-verse’s days appear to be numbered over the long term, however, the speed at which cable subscribers defect remains to be seen.
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