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Dish Network vs. AT&T U-verse

Anyone who's been a beta tester for a software product can attest to the pain involved with that, but then again, you usually receive the software for free. Do you really want to pay good money for something that is still being tweaked?

Perhaps all a consumer needs to know about the U-verse product is that while AT&T has advertising it, they have also been selling DIRECTV and in fact, once were partnered with Dish Network and sold both quite aggressively in markets where U-verse was fully deployed.

Admittedly both U-verse and Dish Network are very reliable services, so customers cannot go wrong with either service there, but there are major differences concerning price, programming options and value. Of course in areas where U-verse is available, AT&T will want you to buy more than one of their services, so we will attempt to compare apples with apples and compare the television options.

AT&T U-verse offers a Family package and a U100 package; curiously both are $49 per month. The Family package has 70-channels and the U100 has 130 channels. Anyone else seeing the obvious problem with both packages being priced the same?

Dish Network offers three packages with considerably more value. The first being their Classic Bronze package with over 120-channels and priced regularly at $39.99, and in promotion for $24.99 for the first year. Next is the Classic Silver package with over 220-channels, priced regularly at $52.99 and, also in promotion for $37.99 for the first year. The most overwhelming value is the Classic Gold package with more than 260-channels double the amount U-verse would provide for just $13-more a month, regularly $62.99 - yes - you guessed it, also in promotion for $47.99 for the first year. AT&T U-verse can provide a package with up to 230-channels, but pricing on this U-200 package starts at $64.00 per month.

AT&T's best programming package is the U-450, a package containing nearly 400-channels, including premium movie channel packs for HBO and Cinemax, and a sports package that contains roughly 20-regional sports networks from around the country. This package is regularly $109.00 per month.

Both AT&T U-verse and Dish Network offer free installation and free equipment for their customers, however Dish Network includes their CNET Editors Choice Award Winning ViP722 Duo HD-DVR among its free offerings. Both U-verse and Dish Network charge just $10 per month for HD-programming, with U-verse offering 110-HD channels and Dish Network coming in at 140-HD channels. DVR service is a bit tilted in Dish Network's favor, award-winning receivers and a storage capacity advantage of 350-hours of standard-definition and 55-hours of high-definition programming, compared to AT&T's 233-hours SD and 65-hours HD.

Although AT&T U-verse is now positioned as a solid alternative to your local cable company, its availability is still quite limited. Still, if you are fortunate to live in an area where it is available, it is very hard to ignore the technology, programming and cost advantages of Dish Network, where value is the name of the game for consumers.

By: Frank Bilotta