Alan Weinkrantz is inviting folks from all over the globe to come to his house to watch TV.

The public relations man boasts one of the few houses anywhere in which folks can compare, with their own eyes, AT&T's new U-verse video service with that of Time Warner Cable. The two services run simultaneously on separate TV screens in his San Antonio home. Employees of major foreign telcos have already taken the tour, and Weinkrantz welcomes others to follow.

"Maybe my house will become the start of the United Nations of IPTV," he wrote in his blog.

AT&T had promised open-house demonstrations of U-verse (similar to the Tupperware parties of old, only without the poodle skirts and sweater sets) from early users who would be compensated in some undisclosed way by AT&T. (Weinkrantz, who represents Pulver.com among other technology clients, claims no commercial gain is tied to his hospitality, however.)

"Dueling TV" demos such as Weinkrantz's illustrate the two-part task facing telcos as they strive to win the eyeballs of the folks who'd previously only lent them an ear. The first task is to convince the public that there's no difference between the quality of cable TV and that of Telco TV. The next task is to convince them that there's all the difference in the world.