It

will probably be April before Fayette residents

will see MediaOne construction crews out digging

up their yards, says John West, project manager

for the company's Fayette County upgrade.

The

company has begun the work of replacing almost

800 miles of cable television facilities in

Fayette, but most of the work at this point is

not visible.

Once

the physical work begins, West said, residents

will have to put up with some mud and mess, plus

more frequent cable service interruptions, for a

few weeks as crews go from neighborhood to

neighborhood installing state-of-the-art fiber

optic equipment.

West

and MediaOne vice president Dennis Lopatch

updated the Fayette County Commission on plans

for the upgrade last week, saying all of the work

should be finished by October.

"We

lost a week to weather," said West,

referring to last week's ice storm, which kept

construction crews indoors and tied up

maintenance crews in restoration efforts.

But,

he added, much of Fayette's cable wiring is

overhead, and replacing it should go quickly.

"Fayette is sort of a construction dream

from that perspective," he said.

The

county will be carved up into areas, and work

will be completely finished in one area before

crews move on to the next, said West. Residents

will notice that grass that's been disturbed

won't be replaced right away, even though the

work looks finished, he warned.

"We

don't do the restoration until we are completely

done with an area," he said. It's less

expensive to sod an entire area at once, and

crews need access for ongoing testing of the new

cable, he said.

Once

the work is finished in each section, he said,

the cable will be turned on and customers will

start being billed at a higher rate for the new

services available.

Although

customers already have received letters

announcing the rate increase, they won't get the

rate hike until they have the new service, said

Lopatch.

You'll

know when work crews are coming to your

neighborhood. You'll get a door knocker message

and a letter. Once the work is finished, Lopatch

promised you'll be happier with the service.

High

speed cable modem and telephone service, made

possible by the fiber optic technology, won't be

available right away, though, Lopatch said. That

will come after a period of testing and

"working the bugs out" of the cable

system, he said.

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