2008 Gadget of the year - AT&T U-verse

For driving availability of broadband access, and
increasing competition for TV service, U-verse is
the 2008 gadget of the year.

What qualifies a gadget for this title? It has to be innovative. It has to have had an impact this year. It has to be in widespread use or clearly likely to enter widespread use in the near future.

This year, the gadget of the year title goes to AT&T’s U-verse service.

There was some close competition.

• Fourth runner up is the iPhone 3G
• Third runner up is the Flip Mino video cameras
• Second runner up is the car GPS
• First runner up – Apple’s Time Capulse

But when it came to a new technology, that has achieved widespread deployment and the potential for long lasting impact, AT&T U-verse is our gadget of the year.

U-verse, for those not yet familiar with it, is the first mainstream viable alternative to cable and satellite TV. This alone makes it significant. For many years most people were limited to either broadcast TV or the local cable monopoly (with its ever increasing rates). Satellite TV (Direct TV and Dish) provided some much needed competition. With U-verse, an increasing number of people will have three alternatives to choose from. This is already reflected in new customer discounts by all of the services and in the long term will help keep rates low for everyone.

From a technological perspective, U-verse is an IP TV service – basically an Internet TV service over a DSL line. But it’s not an ordinary DSL line – AT&T brings a high speed fiber link to the nearest junction box and runs a very high speed signal – potentially over 50Mbits/sec over your phone line to a router in your home. This can distribute up to two High definition and four additional standard TV signals through your house, while at the same time providing up to 18 Mbits/sec of broadband Internet connectivity plus a digital voice line.

The service comes with a digital video recorder (DVR). But what makes this DVR special is the ‘total DVR service’ that allows recorded programs to be viewed on any TV in the house. This convenience alone can be worth the package. You can, of course, manage your DVR and set recordings via the Internet as well – great for when you left the house and forgot to set a recording. The DVR can record up to four channels at once (two HD and two standard).

With an a la carte pricing scheme that lets you pay for just the services you want, and easily change services over the Internet, along with surprisingly good customer service, AT&T U-verse should become a major player in the home entertainment market for years to come.

By providing some real competition to cable and satellite, along with driving deployment of infrastructure to make higher speed broadband access more widely available, AT&T U-verse is our gadget of the year.