AT&T Inc. this week added new features to its U-verse residential fiber offering, including scheduling for whole-home DVR and faster broadband speeds.
The U-verse Total Home DVR feature has added the ability to schedule and manage recordings from any U-verse receiver; customers, in other words, can set or delete recordings from any room in their home, instead of from the DVR receiver room only.
Also, U-verse customers will soon have a new interface to schedule and manage their DVR recordings from any Web-connected PC. Powered by Yahoo!, the enhanced functionality enables faster browsing of the program guide; sorting the program guide by genre, favorites or HD channels; referencing recently recorded shows and upcoming scheduled shows on a side panel; targeted searching by title, actor and channel; and personalizing favorite channels.
The LEC also has added a 20 percent downstream speed increase for AT&T U-verse Internet Max customers, from 10mbps to up to 12mbps.
Also, a new “On Demand Top Picks” application makes recommendations to on-demand users based on their past video rental history, along with a list of the top ten on-demand titles U-verse TV customers are renting. The app also will give customers the ability to rate a movie they have previously rented, which will be averaged into other U-verse TV customer ratings and displayed next to the title in the On Demand recommendations list.
Customers also will be able to pull up a panel of options to jump to another channel, time or day to find programming by pressing “enter.” If this is done watching live TV, it brings up a side panel that allows users to select from zoom and audio options.
And as a bonus, AT&T is offering a “free movie month.” All U-verse TV customers will get unlimited access to Starz at no extra charge during July.
The upgrades are all free, the carrier said. Total Home DVR capabilities will be expanded market-by-market in the upcoming weeks along with the navigation enhancements. On Demand Top Picks will be available to customers in Los Angeles; Cleveland; Hartford, Conn.; St. Louis; Atlanta; Sacramento, Calif., San Antonio and Austin, Texas, within the next few weeks, and AT&T plans to make the app available to all U-verse TV customers next year. The faster Internet speeds are available immediately.
