Gizmodo
Leaky signals from badly-installed AT&T U-Verse systems are squeezing up into the cable network and degrading broadband performance for others on some nodes, according to Comcast. About 40 cases of the problem have been reported since AT&T began supplying U-Verse in the Chicago area, with about 17,000 Comcast customers being affected. And though at first it sounds a bit like a schoolyard tussle, AT&T's lack of response has led Comcast to seek a restraining order from a court in Illinois.
While AT&T uses twisted pair cable to get to your front door, and Comcast uses coax, once they're inside, the signals share cabling. This means if you use U-Verse TV and Comcast broadband, and "feedback" from the U-Verse system spills upstream, it can affect the service of everyone connected to the same Comcast node. Comcast alleges that poor installation by U-Verse engineers is letting these signals leak via poor filters or systems using similar frequencies, and that AT&T has not motivated itself to fix the problem.
Unsurprisingly, AT&T is highly skeptical that U-Verse is the source of the issue. This is AT&T's position on the case: the "suit lacks merit," said a spokesperson. It's a bit of dirty work to try to keep them out of the Illinois cable TV market and AT&T will keep trying "to bring Illinois consumers a new choice for video services as we have in other states and will oppose Comcast's efforts to thwart that."
Comcast, however, is taking a holier-than-thou attitude: "AT&T should act like a good corporate citizen and work with Comcast to resolve this privately." Because Comcast supposedly behaves like that themselves, yes? [Arstechnica]
Comments
Sounds like Comcast finally has a scapegoat to blame their B.S. on! Way to go Comcast, just start using your own "in home" solutions and stop waiting for others. Losers!
So what's their excuse everywhere else, when their service sux?
If it's something that can be reliably shown on test equipment then it's a technical issue and it should be handled as such.
If not it's just corporate spitballing.
I have comcast and it sucks, didn't know if was AT&T's fault. Even though I don't have U-Verse or whatever... my cell phone must be the issue.
So is the enemy of my enemy, truly my friend?
Comcast doesn't like the competition from AT&T.
It's about time the consumer has a choice for services like U-Verse and FiOS.
Both Telco's are taking customers away from the cable operators.
It's less of an issue with AT&T's U-verse service as a whole (which sucks mighty big horse huey compared to Comcast - and that's saying something), and more of an issue with AT&T's installers being complete 'tards when it comes to installing their filters and adapters.
FCC rules clearly state that one service's signals cannot interfere with another's - period.
@DigitalNoise:
Comcast has the worst product/service compared to any of the IPTV (U-Verse and FiOS) offerings.
You must be on drugs. :)
@DigitalNoise:
You're mad. I just literally switched from Comcast to U-verse this past weekend. There's a few tradeoffs - U-Verse does not yet have HD on demand for HBO/Showtime etc, and movies. On the other side of the coin, AT&T can add features a lot quicker and easier than Comcast does because of the hardware that U-Verse is using. Switching channels is immediate on U-Verse, the interface on their DVR is far better than Comcast, its cheaper and opens the door up for more competition. Here in Atlanta people can't leave Comcast fast enough for U-Verse. Its no where near perfect, but its cheaper and has more channels and far more promise than Comcast.
@sladehayes:
I totally agree with you. I'm in california, and I recently switched to U-verse tv and internet, and I love it - the dvr is sweet. The only thing I don't like about it is that the internet is run through an interleaved protocol, making my gaming pings slightly higher, which is not a super big deal, but bothers me a little in css
oh yah, and I was switching from Comcast - I'm never going back to those people in my life. They let us sit there with this super old cable box, and we thought this was just what we were supposed to be getting. When we told them that we were going to need to cancel our service to switch, they were like "oh no, our service is fine, you just have outdated hardware." Oh really? so you were just going to let us sit with the outdated hardware until we complained about it, then its free? I don't think so..I've had enough of being ripped off by comcast
Funny because my condominium building banned Comcast from unsupervised access because they kept disconnecting our in-house broadband network and DirecTV equipment...
everyone join the club: [www.comcastmustdie.com]
Sounds like comcast trying to place the blame for their suckiness on at&t.
Uverse is giving these customers a real choice and comcast can't handle that.
I work for AT&T and I have installed U-verse a few times. I am trying to figure out what filters comcast is talking about. They only filters we use plug into the telephones to filter out the high frequency noise from the dsl. On most Uverse installs, the filter goes outside into the main phone panel, no inside filter needed. From there we find where the main coax connection is and disconnect the cable feed and connect ours. They only way for it to backfeed, would be if the installer forgot to disconnect the main cable feed from the house, kinda like how comcast forgets to disconnect the phone feed when they put in their Voip.
the point is.... the pic says it all !!!
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