AT&T announced at a Merrill Lynch Communications Forum in New York City that U-verse averages a 13.4% penetration in markets where it’s been available for 12 months or more. In comparison, Verizon claims a 16% penetration rate for FiOS TV. AT&T also outlined their “U-verse profile” which has a 25 Mbps budget over a single copper pair line at up to 3,000ft, supporting 2 HD and 2 SD streams, 2 VoIP lines and up to 10 Mbps Internet service.
These penetration numbers aren’t enough to send shivers up the back of the cable industry. But they surely are enough to take notice. Considering both AT&T and Verizon are just getting started with their video efforts, their impact on cable’s core business can’t be underestimated. Of course the reverse is also true, where several cable companies are now considered top ten “telephone” companies by counting the number of telephone customers they’ve managed to siphon away from the likes of AT&T and Verizon. The battle rages on.
I live in Greensboro, NC. I read about IPTV and competitive services and I see it in my travels but in the city where I live there is Time Warner and AT&T. AT&T does not really compete with Time Warner. They say they do but I don’t consider DSL a substantial technology compared to Time Warner’s Road Runner. We have Clearwire in the area but again, it is not competitive.
I get 5 megabits for $46 from Time Warner. I have Vonage for $30. I have DirecTV with an upgraded package and Tivo ( DirecTV is wrecking it) for about $67. When you compare it to a similar bundle and drop the intro price, it is about $20 cheaper. I think cities the size of Greensboro or smaller will be left out for some years. There is a space in the market here!