With cable companies encroaching increasingly on their telephone business, AT&T (T) has had to find ways to fight back, and they have with their new U-verse service which will blend computers, TV sets and cell phones together in one service package.
The new service features the yet-to-be-proven IPTV technology (Internet Protocol TV) which Microsoft (MSFT) has been working on with them for the most part.
The deployment of the software for the service on such a large scale had never been done before and so a number of glitches in the system had to be worked out before it could be rolled out again.
John Stankey, AT&T's group president for operations support, said, "We have had our fits and starts, but right now we feel we're in a pretty good place," referring to the problems associated with the service. He added that there were no huge problems, just a number of smaller ones that had to be taken care of.
As of early February, they're starting to push and sell the revitalized program 
again.
They are adding markets for the first time since the end of December when the problems started occurring. They have started in the Milwaukee and Racine, Wisconsin areas and will be moving soon into Dallas-Fort Worth in early March and then on to Kansas City later in the month.
AP Photo/ERIC GAY
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