CAPE PONDERS ALTERNATE TCI PLAN; CABLE COMPANY FAVORS DIGITAL COMPRESSION OVER FIBER OPTICS

If the proposed alternative looks good, members of the Cape Girardeau Cable TV Advisory Commission will recommend allowing TCI Cablevision to abandon its commitment to convert the city's cable television lines to fiber optics.

Three representatives of the city plan to travel to Hartford, Conn., next month to see whether the alternative TCI proposes is as good as the cable company claims.

When the city council renewed its franchise in Oct. 1995, TCI pledged to convert its wiring in Cape Girardeau to fiber optics by April 1998.

TCI contends that installing fiber optic cable throughout the city would mean rate increases of at least $5 a month for every customer. Instead, the cable company proposes using digital compression technology on the existing coaxial cable to increase the number of channels available.

The system TCI proposes would allow it to send out eight digital channels for every analog channel it now transmits, said Tom Cantrell of TCI's regional office in Bloomington, Ind. In addition, by switching to digital, the picture and sound quality would be far superior to what it is now, he said.

TCI contends that the main reason for converting to fiber optics is to increase the number of channels available, and that using digital compression would increase the number of channels without forcing the cable company to raise every subscriber's rates.

Fiber optics cables transmit signals using pulses of light. The coaxial cable currently in use uses electric current. Fiber optics cables can carry more signals and need fewer amplifiers to keep their signals going.

Under TCI's proposal, TCI would charge subscribers who want to keep the same number of channels as they have now the same rates they charge now, while it would put together a more expensive package for customers who want more channels.

Those who opt for more would get a converter to convert the compressed digital signals to the analog signals their televisions can handle.

Jim Dufek, who teaches mass communications at Southeast Missouri State University, and Susan Hekmat, who teaches language arts at Cape Central High School, plan to represent the cable commission in Hartford. Walter Denton, administrative assistant to the city manager, will represent the city staff.

Dufek said fiber is technically superior to coaxial cable, but it is possible that using digital compression could give TCI subscribers in Cape Girardeau the improvements they want. However, he said fiber optics would more easily allow for interactive services that the cable customers might want in the future.

Dufek and Hekmat said they will wait until after the trip to make a judgment.