U-verse Update

Going head to head with Verizon's multi-billion dollar fiber rollout takes some serious guts. It looks like AT&T is putting an honest effort forward with their U-verse rollout. However, when you hear that they will not be rolling out fiber to your home, instead using VDSL on the last stretch, it does make one worry that they will take short cuts to squeeze everything into that pipe. EngadgetHD has a couple of good links to read more on the rollout.

From the article:

AT&T is finally ready to add HD to its much-delayed Project Lightspeed (U-verse) but the project
is still dogged by questions and controversy. Unlike Verizon's FiOS service which runs
fiber directly to the house, AT&T is using old-school VDSL for the last mile
to most of its customers' homes, and claim it will have the bandwidth to deliver
high speed internet and up to two streams of HDTV. Unfortunately, some analysts
disagree, seeing either a change in plans switching to Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH),
or following DirecTV's lead and offering some sort of HDLite reduced-quality
high definition. So far, AT&T is writing this off as just speculation,
saying its current plan makes sense, and it is already testing HD to some
customers in Houston. There's already some benefit over cable co's, with
features like quad-tuner SD PVRs, but we're hoping that if things get tight they
don't choose the cheap route and squeeze the HD figuring
no one will notice