I have to wonder what the SF Examiner would have said if they had either Verizon’s FIOS or SureWest’s FTTH connectivity.
In areas where AT&T is the only option to the cable company, AT&T’s UVerse is looking like a pretty good home or workplace upgrade to DSL. I mean, in some areas they are promising 18 megs down, but only a paltry 1.5 megs up.
The cable guys are moving up the ladder with Docsis 3.0 already, with promises of 100 megs down and significant upload speeds that vary per market and system operator.
My second home in Sacramento has SureWest which offers triple play, and 50 Megs up and down, and some of the best customer support around. (They answer fast, fix things faster and basically you don’t need much from them)
The great thing about SureWest is I have an open pipe to the Internet. Some FIOS users tell me that they are stuck using Verizon’s DNS and SMTP. That’s the same way some cable operators are with using their SMTP vs. your own, by blocking port 25. I’m not sure how UVerse handles that, but it is an issue for those who work at home and want to use their own office mail servers.
Bottom line, if the Examiner thinks UVerse is the Product of the Year, all they need to do is go 90 miles east and see what a real Product of the Year is like. Go East Young Man and get SureWest.