AT&T U-Verse Set-Top Boxes Drop The Wires For Ease Of Use

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The set-top box may well be one of the primary components of the home theater system. Whether you’re using it for cable cutting measures or as part of a balanced cable system, that little box keeps your video and audio equipment from being little more than media players or giant paperweights. And the folks out at AT&T, as part of their U-Verse system, are offering up a way to make that set-top box a lot more modular by way of converting them to wireless.

Yes, back in the old days, cable required a direct connection to your television. And now, the folks at AT&T have kind of latched on that maybe they don’t need to feed wires into the back of the set-top box to make the magic happen. Basically, what’s happened is that the residential gateway you get when you sign up for AT&T U-Verse is now hooked to a wireless receiver, which then hooks a second terminal into your television via the HDMI port, eliminating the cable link between the gateway and your television and converting it to a mostly wireless system. So if you suddenly get one of those flashes of inspiration following an afternoon of DIY Network and decide that all your furniture should be running at diagonal angles, you’ll be able to make that happen without having to get out a drill and run new coaxial cable.

And if you like the sound of this, then you won’t have long to wait. You’ll be able to get these starting next Monday–Halloween night, no less–and you’ll have to shell out $49 for the box itself plus an additional $7 a month rental fee.

Not a bad idea, I’d say, though the rental fee seems a little excessive especially given that you’re already paying for the service itself. But still, versatility is a valuable thing and being able to move your furniture around literally at the drop of a hat is worth a little cash, I’d say.

But what about you guys? Would you drop $49 to buy an extra $7 bill every month so you can easily move your furniture whenever you like? Or will you put up with a little extra cable lying around in order to save some bucks? Either way, we want to hear what you think about all this, so head on down to the comments section below and fill us in!