Fayette's cable provider, AT&T

Broadband, announced this week that the long-awaited upgrade of its local

facilities is finished.

Unless you live in Peachtree

City, that is. The city's cable service previously was provided by Intermedia,

a separate company from Wometco, which owned the facilities for the rest

of Fayette. Upgrade of former Intermedia facilities is expected by year's

end, said AT&T spokesman Reg Griffin.

The Wometco upgrade affects

more than 22,000 homes in Fayette County, bringing dozens of new cable

TV channels, greater system reliability and an opportunity to experience

the company's new digital TV service, said Griffin.

The announcement is good news

to County Administrator Chris Cofty, who has occasionally had harsh words

for the company's handling of local service complaints, and delays in

completing the upgrade.

Complaint calls to the county

"have really slacked off," said Cofty. "I'm really glad

to have this thing done."

Cofty said he has driven around

the county and verified that the upgrade is indeed up and running.

Customers at first will notice

the addition of several new cable TV channels including The History Channel,

Speedvision, Sci-Fi Channel, Fox News Channel, Turner Classic Movies,

The Golf Channel and others. Griffin said customers also will notice a

significant improvement in the reliability of the network and enhancements

to picture and audio quality.

"Over the last several

months we have been focused on upgrading our current network to a highly

reliable hybrid fiber-coax network," explained Mark Davis, vice president

of network engineering and construction for AT&T Broadband's Atlanta

Region.

"We have engineered and

installed the latest broadband technology capable of delivering improved

cable TV and other enhanced services to our Fayette County customers.

These services are delivered to each neighborhood via hair-thin fiber

optic strands," Davis explained.

"A small fiber optic node

serving approximately 500 homes converts light signals