Users in our U-Verse forum (also see thread here) complain that AT&T has begun inundating TV viewers with new pop up advertisements. On the positive side, the pop ups (like this one) don't appear to come up very often, and are advertising AT&T bundles or new services -- like getting a free pizza when you upgrade to higher-end AT&T IPTV tiers. In a TV future where everybody skips traditional advertising via DVR, the fact that IPTV interactivity is going to create a new breed of advertisement is probably inevitable. Still, consumer complaints should help shape this new landscape of advertising into something less annoying.

Update: AT&T offered this statement about the new ads: story continues..

Sacramento-based SureWest Communications offers consumers a mix of fiber to the home service and ADSL2+. Surewest already offers IPTV service to its fiber customers, who can get symmetrical service at speeds up to 25Mbps for $70 bundled, $84 unbundled.

Users in our AT&T U-Verse forum are tracking AT&T's release of some free new functionality for the company's IPTV customers. "Phase 2" upgrades of the service now allows customers to record, delete or schedule recordings from any box in the house -- instead of just the primary DVR. In addition to the new recording functionality, AT&T appears to have fixed several persistent bugs (like dropped audio under some optical connections) and tweaked the service's GUI, with many users saying they the channel guide is more responsive. As part of this latest U-Verse upgrade, AT&T's also giving High Speed Internet Max customers a free 20% boost in downstream speed from 10Mbps to 12Mbps.

One gets the feeling that if Dallas Mavericks owner and HDNet CEO Mark Cuban wasn't absolutely terrified of broadband video, he wouldn't be constantly ranting about how broadband video is going to fail. Cuban's spent the last five years urging ISPs to block P2P, supporting the cable industry's vision of net neutrality (as in: none), insisting the Internet is dead, lamenting broadband video's shortcomings and generally pouting a lot.

• Pelosi Asks Justice To Take Broader View Of Competitive Landscape [multichannel.com]
• The risks of a national broadband network [aardvark.co.nz]
• Congress re-mulls ban on wireless tax [theregister.co.uk]
• Google, Yahoo, Skype in survey that states obvious: Consumers expect unrestricted Internet access [reuters.com]
• Is it a bad idea for IBM to buy Sun? [cnet.com]
• Survey reveals woeful service from UK broadband big boys [pcpro.co.uk]
• In-Stat: 30% of subscribers will be 3G or 4G by 2013 [fiercewireless.com]
• Skype offers Mac users free Wi-Fi [yahoo.com]
• Choruss' Music Tax Plan: Bait-And-Switch [techdirt.com]
• Further Sony Ericsson Break-Up Rumours [cellular-news.com]
• AT&T to offer unsubsidized iPhone 3G with no commitment required? [engadget.com]
• Privacy watchdog barks for federal Gmail probe [theregister.co.uk]

• Australia's Blacklisted Hyperlinks to Cost Webmasters $11,000 a Day [maximumpc.com]
• Recession Isn't Holding Back Mobile Broadband Subscribers [cellular-news.com]
• Telus to invest $500-million to improve B.C. broadband [theglobeandmail.com]
• AT&T takes smart grids residential [telephonyonline.com]
• Is BT losing its bottle on Phorm? [pcpro.co.uk]
• CEA: Cable Should Rely On Common Downloadable-Security Scheme [multichannel.com]
• Irish ISPs Point Out They're Under No Obligation To Follow Three Strikes Policy [siliconrepublic.com]
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ReadWriteWeb has a good look at the upcoming Internet functionality Verizon is planning to offer via their FiOSTV set top boxes. FiOS DVRs are supposed to see new functionality this summer that allows them access to Internet video (via YouTube and similar portals) directly through the settop. This fall, Verizon is expected to integrate Facebook and Twitter functionality, along with a number of other useful "widgets." Users have been closely tracking the Verizon IMG evolution in our Verizon FiOSTV forum. Both AT&T and Verizon are obviously hoping that by being the first to market with additional Internet functionality, they can draw more customers over from cable competitors.

Despite the tough economy, the idea that consumers are cutting the TV cord remains somewhat of a myth, at least according to Comcast and telecom stock jock Craig Moffett. While overall subscription numbers are down due to a slow housing market (no new homes, no new subs), competition from TelcoTV, and a saturated market -- growth is continuing. 441,000 new pay TV customers signed up for service last quarter, up from 396,000 during the last quarter of 2007. Not only do new subscriber additions continue to climb, customers continue to stay with carriers despite the now obligatory yearly (or sometimes bi-yearly) cable, TelcoTV and satellite TV rate hikes.

The argument over whether to delay the digital TV transition from February 17 to June 12 stumbled last week, when the idea failed to get the required two-thirds majority vote in the House. The House of Representatives spent much of today debating legislation that would delay the digital TV transition from February 17 to June 12, and today ultimately approved the delay, 264-158. Many see the delay as unnecessary, given the people who ignored a year's worth of warnings will probably be equally unprepared on June 12. The hope is that the delay will give the government time to fix a coupon program that offers two free $40 coupons for digital converters to each American family. Budgetary shortfalls in the program resulted in a waiting list for applicants.

Despite being one of the early pioneers of telco TV (they just recently shut down their VDSL-based IPTV service ChoiceTV), Qwest continues to insist they have no interest in being a TV company. "I believe over time there will be a significant number of people that will be ambivalent on how they get their video, and a big chunk of it will come from the Internet," Qwest CEO Ed Mueller says. "We’re not on the IPTV mission, but we do think there will be potentially ad-based video with QoS and high def signals and you won’t care if it comes via cable or Direct TV or the Internet."

If you recall, years ago there was lots of chatter about carriers using the Xbox 360 as an IPTV set top. With Microsoft's long list of telco IPTV partners (Bell Canada, British Telecom, Reliance Infocomm, Swisscom, Telecom Italia, Deutsche Telecom's T-Online France, AT&T), it seemed like a natural evolution for the console, but so far it has been a no show. Our friend Dave Zatz at Zatz Not Funny checked in with Microsoft at CES and confirmed their IPTV plans are not dead -- in fact it appears they may be focusing on AT&T as a partner, which would hopefully someday mean Xbox 360 powered U-Verse IPTV. We're guessing any potential bandwidth caps wouldn't apply.

In addition to raising the prices for non-DVR set tops and increasing the price of their movie tier from $15 to $20, AT&T is now saying they're also raising the price of their U100, U200 and U-family U-Verse IPTV packages for new customers starting February 1. AT&T's U100 and U-family packages will increase from $44 to $49 per month, while the company's U200 package will increase from $59 to $64 per month. The move comes shortly after AT&T introduced a new, "Premium" HD tier that costs $5 per month and has all of three channels (Universal HD, MGM HD and Smithsonian HD) -- one of which used to be included in their $10 standard HD package.

Satellite operator SES AMERICOM had struck deals with 70 (37 of which have launched) small telcos across the United States to launch their IP Prime IPTV service, recently crowing that their financials were fine, and the TV business was recession proof. Apparently not. The company now says they'll be shuttering the IP Prime system. The service, which offered 300 video channels and 100 music channels, launched in 2005. "With a subscriber base of less than ten thousand at the end of November and after more than 2 years of service, the consumer uptake is insufficient to justify continuing operations," says the company's CEO.

Just as AT&T crosses the one million mark in terms of U-Verse TV customers served, the company this morning announced they're expanding the VDSL-based IPTV service into Orlando, Florida and Raleigh, North Carolina -- both former BellSouth markets where customers have been greatly anticipating service upgrades. The move brings additional competition to bear in an already increasingly competitive Florida market, where regional cable incumbents Comcast and Bright House are already trying to fend off deployment of Verizon FiOS.

If you remember, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts was never really sold on offering wireless, aka the fourth component on top of TV, data and VOIP in a "quadruple play" offering to consumers. That's despite participating in a group that paid $2.4 billion for broadband wireless spectrum, and now doling out more than a billion to help Clearwire deploy Mobile WiMax.

User Tcomp directs our attention to the fact that Fairpoint, who recently acquired Verizon's DSL networks in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, will be testing IPTV service in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Fairpoint has been taking former Verizon FTTH infrastructure and rebranding it from FiOS to "FAST." But unlike Verizon, whose FiOSTV is a hybrid coaxial/fiber system, Fairpoint apparently seems interested in running pure IPTV.

AT&T's new whole-home DVR functionality allows U-Verse IPTV customers to watch recorded DVR content on any television (up to three) in the home. The telco has been deploying the service market by market over the last few months, and today announced that the first phase of the free upgrade has been completed ahead of schedule, in every market where AT&T offers U-Verse TV service. Completing their deployment into 69 markets, AT&T today launched the service in Bakersfield, Dayton, Green Bay, Jacksonville, Little Rock, Miami, South Bend, Tulsa, West Palm Beach and Wichita. User gdm write me to note that the second two phases of AT&T's IPTV DVR upgrades will allow users to delete and setup shows from remote set tops.

• FCC's Copps: Support Growing For Analog Extension [multichannel.com]
• FCC White Spaces Report Misses the Mark, Groups Say [pcworld.com]
• Broadband Forum Preps Release of New IPTV Standards [xchangemag.com]
• Virgin Now Licensed to Offer BGAN Satellite Services in Canada [marketwatch.com]
• UK Releases Details, But Delays, Plan To Surveil Every Bit Of Communication [techdirt.com]
• Google fails some users for more than 24 hours [theinquirer.net]
• Microsoft Wants To Bring Silverlight To iPhone, Android [informationweek.com]
• Google's G1 or Apple iPhone? The Experts Weigh In [internetnews.com]

AT&T continues their staggered deployment of both dual HD streams (the bandwidth demands being a major reason why they recently updated their TOS) and "whole-home DVR" functionality. The free DVR upgrade allows U-Verse IPTV customers to watch recorded DVR content on any television in the home (up to three, we're told). According to AT&T, they're now offering the upgrade in several additional areas (Atlanta, Cleveland, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Reno and Sacramento). As we've said, the next major stepping stone for U-Verse is getting line-bonded VDSL working so they can offer faster speeds -- something the telco, despite analyst doubts, tells us is still on schedule for this year.

Before there was AT&T U-Verse and Verizon FiOSTV, and long before Qwest CEO Ed Mueller poo-pooed the idea of a telco offering TV services -- there was Qwest Choice TV. Choice TV was a VDSL-based IPTV delivery system that was deployed first back in 1999 on a trial basis in Arizona, and later expanded into Colorado.