I've not had much contact with ATT in the past, but we had the exact same thing a few years ago where U-Verse was installed locally, so we upgraded. It was cheaper than my old DSL and significantly faster. Its not true fiber optics - at least not here. Its fiber optics to their switching station or whatever its called, then its like DSL to the house or something. So it is not nearly as fast as unthrottled fiber optics. Its more like a great DSL connection. Its not even as fast as cable. But it is 1/2 the price of cable, and I hate cable a lot.
Anyhow, we've been using it for a few years here and we've enjoyed it.
Chris