AT&T falls short of 15-market IPTV goal

AT&T fell short of its original goal of launching its U-Verse IPTV service in 15 markets by the end of 2006.

The carrier’s U-Verse IPTV service is now available in 11 markets, which AT&T defines as “metropolitan statistical areas”: San Antonio and Houston, Texas; San Jose, Calif.; the San Francisco Bay area; Hartford, New Haven and Stamford, Conn.; and Anderson, Indianapolis, Bloomington and Muncie, Indiana.

Early last month, AT&T was still clinging to its 15-market goal while beginning to downplay it. Speaking at an investor conference on Dec. 6, 2006, AT&T’s chief financial officer Rick Lindner said the company had a “good shot” at reaching 15 markets before year’s end but that “the important thing is that we look ahead to 2007.”

On December 21, AT&T quietly lowered its goal from 15 markets to 11, announcing the change at the bottom of a press release announcing the launch of U-Verse in the San Francisco Bay area. A second release that day, announcing a U-Verse launch in San Jose, Calif., did not mention the revised goal.

“We revised the number of markets to make enhancements to software and other systems based on some key learnings in our initial markets,” an AT&T spokesman told Telephony today. “The initial response in San Antonio, our first market, has been strong. As of the third quarter 2006, customer totals were at approximately 3,000, or 10% of homes marketed to.”

On Dec. 27, AT&T announced service launches in Connecticut.

AT&T expects to pass approximately 19 million “living units” by the end of 2008 as part of its initial U-Verse deployment.