Remember the joke about what would happen if you held a party and nobody came?

AT&T's subdued approach to marketing the product that is supposed to be the company's future — U-verse, its answer to cable and satellite TV — is raising the corporate version of that old question.

On the one hand, the San Antonio-based telecommunications company with large operations here is scheduled to announce today the long-awaited, full-fledged rollout of its TV service in metro Atlanta.

On the other hand, AT&T plans little mass marketing for U-verse. It won't even say publicly which neighborhoods the service will be available in: For now, customers have to ask.

That seems unusual for a company that often blankets an area with billboards and TV ads about why its cellphones or high-speed Internet is bigger, better and faster than anyone else's.

"It's very hard to find the [U-verse] brand, unless you know the brand, which is not usually the case when a company is trying to get something out there," said Mark Speece, co-founder of 800 Degrees Inc., an Atlanta-based consulting firm.

AT&T says it's trying to take a more targeted approach — direct mail, e-mail and billing inserts. As far as which neighborhoods have access to U-verse, that's a secret for competitive reasons, officials said.

One marketing expert said AT&T's plan is prudent, given the technology is new and mirrors how it introduced high-speed Internet.

"You do a soft launch where you can work the systems out, and, yeah, you have users, but the whole world doesn't know, and if something blows up, you can keep it quiet," said Edward Rigdon, marketing department chairman at Georgia State University's business school.

AT&T started selling U-verse to about 200 families in metro Atlanta in December as part of a test. Atlanta also is the starting point of AT&T's expanded rollout of U-verse throughout the Southeast.

Nationwide, more than 9 million homes in 43 markets have access to U-verse, but only about 379,000 have signed up, executives said during AT&T's first-quarter earnings conference call last week.

The company wants to have 1 million customers by the end of 2008.

Getting customers to buy U-verse hasn't been an issue, said Rhett Hutchison, AT&T's U-verse sales director. "It's making them aware of it."

Speece said the timid campaign could be ramped up later.

"From a brand standpoint —if they launch this thing, and it fails, the brand is effectively dead," Speece said. "So my guess is, AT&T is wisely keeping the brand behind the curtain until they get it ready for prime time, then we're going to see the billboards, the [Web site] pop-ups."

What's more, one TV ad has caused AT&T some trouble. The company ran a spot in Chicago that featured a comic impersonation of Harry Caray, the legendary baseball announcer. Caray's widow, Dutchie, blasted the company in a TV interview.

"Some people loved it, and some people didn't love it," said Roger Entner, senior vice president for the communications sector of IAG Research. "But it shows that they spent a lot of effort into the advertising into the local community where they launched U-verse."

U-verse is delivered to homes through digital lines that are similar to high-speed Internet lines. Customers can receive 42 channels in high-definition and the ability to record and store 120 hours of TV programs.

Other features include games and an on-screen phone directory.

The service costs between $44 to $154 a month, depending on the package.

Installation takes about five hours. This is after AT&T technicians install equipment boxes around the neighborhood and make sure the homes are wired to receive streaming video.

Customers don't need AT&T's Internet service to receive U-verse, but the company will cross-market them for two reasons: Consumers can go online to program their TV, and AT&T wants customers to combine as many services — including landline and cellphones — as possible.

Bundled packages make AT&T more competitive against Comcast and satellite TV providers, which started partnering with the likes of Verizon and Sprint Nextel to offer landline and wireless phone service. Comcast eventually started up a phone network of its own, and Verizon offers its own cable product — both in limited areas.

Customers that get more than one product — such as wireless and cable television — at a lower price from one telecom company are less likely to go through all of the red tape to switch to another provider if they are unhappy, analysts such as Entner point out.