Cable switch smooth so far, officials say

Dec 25, 2007 (Statesville Record & Landmark - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- TWC | charts | news | PowerRating -- Officials of Mooresville's and Davidson's new cable and Internet system said last week's transition went exactly as expected.

Wes Rosenbalm, CEO of Bristol Virginia Utilities (BVU) -- the company hired by MI-Connection to manage the system -- told the board of directors that the transition from Time Warner Cable and the new system operations are going well.

Wednesday at 6 p.m., MI-Connection took control of 15,800 subscribers in Mooresville, Davidson, Cornelius, and Mecklenburg County from caretaker Time Warner Cable. The transition, which has been two years in coming, will provide the two towns with local control of programming and operational decisions for the former Adelphia system and an additional revenue stream.

Officials say customers should see little difference in their cable and Internet service following the transition, except that Time Warner's Channel 14 will temporarily operate as a community bulletin and some customer's cable modems may have to be reset.

According to MI-Connection's first newsletter, the system will be upgraded beginning in the spring of 2008 from a 625 megahertz system to at least an 860 megahertz system, although the board of directors has decided to look into the possibility of upgrading to 1 gigahertz system. What that means is that the system will eventually be able to add more analog and digital channels, HD channels, Video-On-Demand, faster Internet speeds, and, in time, digital phone service.

E-mail addresses are scheduled to change sometime early in 2008 and the board hopes to add at least a couple channels before upgrades begin in the spring, but customers will be apprised of what to expect through mailings.

Rosenbalm said there were a few programming issues on Wednesday and about 300 Internet customers who had service but who didn't show up in the system, but that those issues had been resolved. The cable modem switchover, he said, also went very well.

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