Residents will notice improved cable television service at little to no extra cost once the area’s provider, Adelphia Communications Corporation, completes a planned upgrade.

Wednesday, July 05, 2000

Residents will notice improved cable television service at little to no extra cost once the area’s provider, Adelphia Communications Corporation, completes a planned upgrade.

Adelphia is planning to make big changes to the current cable system in both the Ashland, Ky., and Ironton areas, said Jim Wilson, general manager for Adelphia’s Ashland, Ironton and Portsmouth cable systems.

"We’re going to do a total upgrade to the entire system," Wilson said. "Our current fiber optic cable system is almost like a strand of Christmas lights – if one light burns out, the whole strand stops working until that one light is fixed. The same principal applies with our current system which operates in groups of six nodes (or signal amplifiers) serving approximately 1,200 people in each group. When one node goes out, they all go out, causing those 1,200 to lose cable reception."

The new system will only require operation in groups of three amplifiers – meaning that only 600 customers will experience loss of cable reception should an amplifier experience problems, he said.

"The new system will have very limited outages," Wilson said. "We will have fewer customers without cable should an amplifier go bad with the new system."

The $500,000 project will also provide television buffs with additional channels for their viewing pleasure.

The new cable system is expected to branch from the current 70 channels to approximately 135 channels, he said.

"Channels get worse with each node used to amplify the signal and by limiting the cascade, customers can expect clarity to improve," Wilson said. "There will be very small to no increase in price for the cable services with this new system."

Wilson said he doesn’t know what new channels will be added but hopes the company will base the decision on customer-based surveys along with cooperative deals from providers.

Adelphia also will install stand-by power plants throughout its service area as an added security to its customers, Wilson said.

"When our power goes out for whatever reason, we’re shut down until the power companies can get us back up," he said. "We are going to install battery-supplied mini power plants to prevent a cable shutdown. Several hundred supply batteries will be placed throughout the area, allowing us to continue running for approximately three hours easily."

Wilson said each power station will contain six batteries – beating the standard competitors’ stations that will only service customers for 1 1/2 hours after the electricity goes down.

Customers also will see the new system providing cable modem services for computers and telephone services, Wilson said.

"The new system will also allow customers to use the Internet," he said. "This system will make downloading 100 times faster and it won’t tie up the phone line. Customers using this service and the phone service in addition to the cable service will be able to combine these new services for discounts on their bill. With all this new equipment, we are planning on running 99.99995 percent of the time."