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Adelphia Completes Major Upgrade to Services in Centre County, Pa.

Posted on: Friday, 9 December 2005, 18:00 CST

By Jennifer Thomas, Centre Daily Times, State College, Pa.

Dec. 10--New channels, services and products will debut this week as Adelphia ends a yearlong upgrade in the Centre County area that it says will lead its customers into the future.

The enhancements better position the bankrupt company for a seamless transition to Comcast Corp., which is set to finalize its acquisition of Adelphia in the first half of 2006, Adelphia general manager Joe Rocco said.

"These new services being launched are the same type of services Comcast offers to customers in their existing systems," Rocco said.

New services available this week to the more than 35,000 customers served by Adelphia in the Centre County region include four additional channels for expanded basic cable customers, 12 additional channels for digital cable customers, six additional high-definition channels and increased broadband Internet speed.

Video On Demand services, which will be known as Adelphia on Demand, will soon follow, allowing customers to purchase a variety of movies and television programming from their own living rooms, Rocco said.

"In the past when you would do a system upgrade it was always about adding new channels," Rocco said. "Today it's also adding technology and new products." Comcast and Time Warner Inc. announced earlier this year plans to buy Adelphia and divide its assets. Comcast will assume ownership of local Adelphia systems. A precise timetable for Comcast to take ownership of the system has not been announced.

Cable customers will not see their rates increase when the handover takes place, a Comcast spokesperson said.

The impending change hasn't stopped Adelphia from forging ahead with the multimillion-dollar upgrade.

Many of the improvements touch upon issues that surfaced during the Centre County Cable Consortium's franchise negotiations last spring. The consortium held a public hearing, and heard complaints on issues such as available channels and billing concerns, as well as requests for a la carte services, said Patton Township Manager Tom Kurtz.

Kurtz, who served on the board, said that while the complaints were heard, the group has no power to force changes as part of the negotiations.

"We can ask for them, but whether they'll be practiced or not is a different question," he said.

Adelphia began its upgrade well before the consortium hearing.

Rocco said he is most excited about the Video On Demand, which will offer access to a library of movies and television programming.

For example, said Adelphia marketing manager Jeff Matter, a customer who subscribes to HBO will be able to find entire seasons of programs such as "The Sopranos" readily available at no additional cost.

Additional free programming in a myriad of areas is also available from cooking shows to guitar lessons.

Other programs and movies available through Video On Demand have varying costs, similar to a movie rental.

While that may seem similar to pay-per-view, there are definite advantages to Adelphia on Demand, Matter said. For example, once a feature is purchased, the viewer can watch it for the next 24 hours.

"There's so much content there that it actually gives families a lot of choices," Matter said. "It's TV on your time." The library will be constantly upgraded, with new programming added weekly.

The new features and services being introduced by Adelphia are already offered by Comcast, which plans to expand those services in the future, said Comcast spokesman Jeff Alexander.

He said the company has a proven track record of integrating new systems to Comcast and expects a smooth transfer when it takes over Adelphia systems.

Alexander cited the AT&T broadband merger in New England as an example, saying it exceeded expectations and the timetable for completion.

"We look at any area we service as extra important," Alexander said.

In additional to the broadband and cable services, Comcast will offer its new phone service, Comcast Digital Voice.

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To see more of the Centre Daily Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.centredaily.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, Centre Daily Times, State College, Pa.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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ADELQ, CMCSK, TWX, T,

Source: Centre Daily Times (State College, Pa.)

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