They do, but you'll be charged a $200 (or more) "installation fee" if you don't bundle TV with it. When my service was installed, the guy literally walked in, plugged the modem into the wall, and was done. However, if you do order bundled TV with it, they'll prorate the fees if you cancel it... so I ordered TV + internet, cancelled the TV the next day, and now have an internet connection only (without paying their ridiculous $200 "plug it into the wall" fee). I only bought one day of TV service (the cost of which was negligible) and dropped the cable box off at UPS.
I would be using something else if there were ANYTHING else, but my apartment complex won't let cable providers wire the place. I'm moving soon, to hopefully greener pastures.
Not necessarily. I know it's a small subsection of their potential customers, but in markets competing (or about to compete), the subscription process for UVerse's gigabit service (contractually 300Mbps until September then 1Gbps) is quite reasonable. I paid a $100 installation fee that included my first month's service, and I got a $50 Visa card for signing up. Meaning, in the end, my installation cost -$20. It's the same price as Google Fiber, but there is a 1yr contract with a decreasing cancellation fee that makes sense considering the connection process is lengthy and equipment heavy.
And, for the curious, I chose AT&T over Google because Google won't be in my neighborhood for, at the very least, 6 months. I'll take a year of AT&T until Google can get their fiber laid on my street.
Oh, and I only have their internet service. No TV. Although, the deal for that was relatively nice too ($30 a month more, free HBO/HBO-Go for 3 years, free Galaxy Tab 2).
I'm pretty sure that's decades before mainland China.