AT&T Hiking U-verse TV, Internet, Voice Rates

Obviously, the Great Recession is over. AT&T will increase rates for many U-verse video, data and voice packages effective Feb. 1, 2010, with TV subscribers facing monthly rate increases of up to 10%. According to AT&T's Web site, rates for the U-verse U100 and U-family TV packages will increase by $5, from $49 to $54 per month. The U200, U300 and U400 tiers will each go up by $3, to $67, $82 and $112 per month respectively. The telco's U-basic tier, which provides 20 or fewer channels, will remain unchanged at $19 per month. In a statement AT&T said that the "modest price adjustments that we're making are far outweighed by the additional value we've added to U-verse TV in the last year alone." The telco cited the addition of 30 HD channels; enhancing whole-home DVR capabilities; and introducing other new features like U-verse TV Multiview. In addition, AT&T is increasing rates on the three lower tiers of U-verse Internet, effective Feb 1, but only for new subscribers. Starting monthly retail pricing will be: Express (up to 1.5 Mbps downstream) to $30 versus $25 currently; Pro (up to 3 Mbps) to $35 versus $30; and Elite (up to 6 Mbps) to $40 versus $35.