TCI LOOKS TO INSTALL FIBER OPTICS, MOVES AHEAD IN TECHNOLOGY

Those who complain that there is nothing on television might want to glance at the 500-channel future of cable TV.

Cape Girardeau and Jackson cable subscribers could have that many channels to choose from under a new, fiber optics system that is expected to be in operation within two years.

Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), the nation's largest cable company, plans to spend $2 billion to install fiber optics throughout its cable systems nationwide over the next four years, beginning this year. The project will involve installation of fiber optic cable in more than 200 cities.

TCI plans to spend $43 million to install fiber optics in its 18 Missouri cable systems, which serve about 200,000 subscribers.

Dan DeLaney, vice president of operations for TCI Cablevision of Missouri headquartered in St. Peters, estimated Tuesday that the company will spend $5 million to $9 million to install fiber optics in the Cape Girardeau and Jackson area. The local system has about 13,000 subscribers.

DeLaney said design work could begin later this year or early next year. Construction is expected to start in 1994 and be completed in 1995.

In conjunction with the technology upgrade, TCI plans to build a new facility near Kingshighway and Lexington to house its local operations. DeLaney said this will allow the company to combine all of its local operations.

Acquisition of the site is still being finalized, said Roger Harms, manager of the local cable service.

"The average customer is going to say, `I can't watch 500 channels; I don't need 500 channels,'" said Harms. But he explained: "They're not just going to be TV channels; It will be everything under the sun that we can do with it."

Fiber optics, he and DeLaney said, could provide for burglary and fire alarms, banking, and video conferencing. "It could be anything that is carried digitally over fiber optics," said Harms.

"I think the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has opened the doors for everybody," said Harms. "I think you will (eventually) see joint efforts between telephone and cable and broadcast. They will be linked together some way."

Harms said fiber optics will benefit the customer. "It is going to give them more choice and more control and everything.

"It is not going to be the typical TV channel anymore. They are going to get information from everywhere," said Harms.

"There will be sort of a smart box or miniature computer in each home that will convert the digital signal," he explained. "It will have memory just like a computer."

DeLaney and Harms said the customer, for example, would be able to call up the stored signal of a ball game broadcast the previous night and replay it without having to resort to use of a VCR.

"Just think about 20 pay-per-view channels, or maybe 50, where you can have any movie that you want that is released to us at the touch of a finger. That is something that is going to be possible," said Harms.

There could be 10 or 15 shopping channels, and a wide variety of interactive television programs, said Harms.

DeLaney said a Cape Girardeau resident could communicate with a Jackson resident via fiber optics, which would allow for transmission of both voice and video.

Customers in the future would be able to download computer software and subscribe to video games, he pointed out.

"It is (also) the network for customers to dial up their account at the bank," said DeLaney, indicating that such technology provides limitless possibilities.

DeLaney said TCI believes the future rests "in the brave, new world of fiber optics and the services that we will be able to provide."

Harms predicted that television sets eventually will be equipped with the "smart box" just as there are now cable-ready sets.

Fiber optics uses glass fibers to transport light waves. "Light goes through a piece of glass. It is not any bigger than a hair," explained DeLaney.

The glass fibers can carry many more signals than can be carried under the current coaxial cable system. Also, fiber optics will enhance picture quality and reliability, DeLaney and Harms said.

Fiber optics allows a signal to be transmitted 20 to 30 miles without amplification compared to one-third of a mile with the current technology.

"Every time you amplify a signal, you degrade it a little bit," said DeLaney. "In the long run, it uses less electricity and is less subject to damage," he said.

"Fiber gives us the added advantage of being able to transmit undistorted TV pictures over longer distances using less transmission equipment and fewer satellite Earth stations (headends)," Richard Rexroat, TCI's vice president of engineering, said.

"Plus, with fiber, we also gain the ability to reach the gigahertz level (one billion bits per second) essential for high-speed computer traffic and other large-scale date transfers," he said.

A billion bits of data per second is equivalent to sending 60,000 pages of typewritten text over a network in just one second, 100 times the amount possible on non-fiber data communications today, TCI officials said.

Harms estimated that about 170 miles of the 300 miles of coaxial cable in the Cape Girardeau and Jackson system would be replaced with fiber optics.

Under current plans, fiber optics would replace the trunk cable line and feeder lines down to the neighborhood level. Those would then connect to coaxial cables, which would serve customers in a particular area of perhaps 500 homes, Harms said.

With fiber optics cable, he said, outages would be isolated rather than systemwide.

Harms said that fiber optics would be a user system. "If he (the customer) uses the system, then he is going to pay for it." Harms compared it to the way one is charged for telephone service or electricity.

"It is going to change the whole complexion of the way we do business," he said.