AT&T “lawn fridges” may explode, look ugly and reduce property values

Lightreading.com photo: A inelegantly-designed pole-mounted unit in Connecticut.

Is that worth saving 40% on my cable TV and broadband bill each month?

I’ve been watching workers on my morning walks dig grave-size holes in the ground on lawns and easements in my Belmont, N.C. neighborhood to install AT&T’s U-Verse digital cable and broadband. They’d better be burying the fridge-sized units because above-ground, they are so ugly, people in other areas fear they can reduce property values — and some towns have received up to $2,000 per site for landscaping.

Comcast is using the ugly U-Verse cabinets in ads.

David Crommie, president of a San Francisco neighborhood group, calls the boxes “an eyesore” and has and managed to delay AT&T’s plans to install up to 850,” according to AP.

Springfield, Ill. got AT&T to pay them $1,500 for each of the 75-100 U-Verse “cabinets” they put in — using the money for landscaping around them.

Locals generally worry that without landscaping, the boxes could reduce property values, according to DSLReports.com:

One local Illinois official tells me that AT&T is actually now offering three options to municipalities complaining about the cabinets: the first has AT&T doing the landscaping; the second involves AT&T paying $2,000 per site if it’s mutually agreed that landscaping is necessary (the City does the work); the third has AT&T paying $1,500 per site regardless if landscaping is necessary. Most Illinois cities are apparently picking the third option, says the source.

Image from lightreading.com

Egadget reports of U-Verse batteries “going supernova.” AT&T may have to replace up to 17,000 batteries. Explosions have occurred in Houston, Cleveland and Wisconsin, where the explosion “had enough force to blow the 50 pound cabinet door off its bolts,” according to Product Reviews.

My morning walks just got more interesting. I love how I can do on-going reporting in my blog. Let’s at least get $2,000 per site from AT&T for landscaping for any above-ground fridges.

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Tags: at&t, broadband, cable TV, Comcast, U-Verse

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