Some facing cable rate changes

DAILY MAIL STAFF

Capitol Cablecomm customers in the eastern section of KanawhaCounty soon will see changes in their bills.

About 70 percent will see a bill boost and the remaining 30percent will pay less, said General Manager Michael Kelemen.

The determining factor will be in the services that customersorder from the cable company's channel menu, he said.

"The basic service rate will go down 25 cents a month, but thebasic preferred package - Weather Channel, ESPN, CNN, A&E - will goup 70 cents. The TV Marquee package, which includes the Sci-FiChannel, Cartoon network and History Channel, will drop $1.30 permonth," Kelemen said.

The average bill for the area will go down about 42 cents permonth, Kelemen said.

The rate changes will be effective Aug. 1, and customers are beingnotified in bills mailed this month.

"It will affect only the former Tele-Media customers and the rateswill reflect the same rates as customers in the Metro area -Charleston, and South Charleston. We now have almost everything thesame, channel lineups and rates."

Some of the Metro area customers who have had their cable hookupsupgraded with the latest fiber optic lines soon may see some serviceadditions.

Kelemen said he is negotiating for additions to the pay-per-viewchannels. These would be available to the 10,000 East End, downtownand West Side customers whose lines have been upgraded.

The $13 million upgrade project will allow for more services andmore channels to be added to the system. The project is due forcompletion in late 1999.

"We're making the upgrade neighborhood by neighborhood, so theadditions will be only as an area is completed.

"We don't see channel additions planned now for other packages,but there are channels such as Outdoor Life, Turner Classic Moviesand Travel Channel that deserve a look," Kelemen said.

Capitol Cablecomm last month added Home & Garden TV and The MovieChannel for its Metro customers.

The company now serves about 55,000 subscribers throughout theKanawha Valley.

Ron Hutchison can be reached at 348-7918.