NEW CABLE ACCORD LOOKS LIKE A GOOD PLAN

TCI Cablevision and city officials have forged a new franchise agreement for Cape Girardeau. This compromise now goes before the City Council for consideration. The agreement will benefit the city's cable system by combining a complete system upgrade, a new educational channel and other several other improvements.

Perhaps the strength of the agreement can be measured by the harmonious accord of all the parties involved. It isn't often that city staff, the Cable Advisory Board and TCI officials all agree. This signals a document that should meet the future needs of viewers.

At the start, the franchise debate centered on fiber optics. TCI had promised to install the technology but then asked to upgrade with digital compression instead. This technology offers many more channels over the existing lines as opposed to new fiber optic lines.

The franchise agreement offers a compromise: Digital compression will be installed almost immediately. The first phase of the upgrade must provide at least 36 additional channels. Down the road, the technology could offer several hundred channels.

TCI will still install the fiber optic cable, but over a longer period of time.

Also appealing about the proposed agreement is a requirement that TCI must provide a uniform signal strength throughout the franchise area. The current signal is not equal in all parts of town. This component will be a major plus to cable users who complain of a weak signal.

TCI will also add another public, educational and government channel at no cost. Plans are to use the existing Channel 5 for public or government programs. The new channel would carry educational programming.

The cable company would also tie the new channel into a number of city and school sites around town, including the university and Cape Girardeau public schools. This access could mean much greater utilization of the station for local programming.

Of course, TCI should realize that customers want more bang for their buck. Hopefully these improvements won't be tied to whopping price increases.

Many local TCI cable users have long felt the local channel offerings are second-rate when compared to line-ups in neighboring communities. These improvements should boost cable service in Cape Girardeau and Jackson to become one of the best in the region.