AT&T goes up against the cable guys in Texas

AT&T officially launched its U-verse IPTV service in San Antonio, Texas on Monday.

The service runs over AT&T’s high-speed fiber optic backbone and is expected to be the first of many markets where cable companies will come up against new competition.

Previously, AT&T’s U-verse IPTV service was only available to a few hundred consumers in San Antonio. Yesterday the carrier expanded its offer to thousands in the city.

The initial offering includes 200 channels of programming, on-demand library of content, picture-in-picture, and three receivers, one of which is a digital video recorder for $54 to $124 per month depending on Internet and programming packages selected.

Customers have three Internet access service options. Elite supports up to 6Mbps downstream, Pro supports up to 3Mbps downstream and Express supports up to 1.5Mbps downstream. All three support up to 1Mbps upstream.

AT&T says it will offer the service in additional markets by yearend and the service will eventually be available to 19 million customers across the country.