Major questions about At&t Uverse, how it works,changes made

Question

I currently have the top att dsl package dishnetwork bundle but have been hearing all this buzz about att uverse and i have a bunch of questions. first, what changes will be made around the house as far as new wires go ? i hear that uverse is fiber optic ran directly into the house but i also see others say that on their uverse they just used their previous phone lines (unless i read wrong). so which is it, a whole brand new fiber optic wire that gets ran into your house or just them using up left over space on the phone lines like they did with dsl ? they also mention these nodes, a main node that serves the neighborhood that then sends it to a node in the persons yard true/false ? also, a previous question on here stated that your uverse bandwidth is shared with your neighbors (with those nodes) which some how makes sense so i will assume it is (pls correct me if im wrong) so another question is, i have dsl, is my bandwidth being shared with my neighbors ? another, if i get a uverse package thats 1.5 mbps down, is that strictly my internet or my internet and tv ? and finaly, what the h**l is fios ? i know its fiber optic but is it just verizons version of uverse (with better service) or is it a different form of fiber optic ? ive read alot saying verizons fios blows away uverse.

Answer 1

I don't know about at&t, but FIOS is a direct fiber from your home back to the central office.  You share nothing at all with anybody.  No new wires are run in the home.  Your current coax, and copper wireing are used.  A new Optical Network Terminal will be placed in your home along with a battery back up unit.  The ONT converts the fiber signal back into a data signal so the computer. TV, and phone can read it.  The BBU provides you dial tone should you loose power, that is provided you have a corded no electrical phone.