Spectrum’s digital update almost done

Spectrum TV’s digital upgrade for customers in the Columbus area is coming down to its final few weeks.

All areas of the Columbus market should be hooked up to digital by the end of July, spokesman Michael Pedelty said.

“The Columbus area is 90 percent complete. Westerville, Worthington (and) Bexley will be completed in the next couple of weeks,” Pedelty said.

The upgrade to digital launched in April and has focused on different areas of Columbus upgrading each week. The goal of going all-digital in Columbus and removing analog signals allows Spectrum to offer faster internet speeds, more HD and On Demand options, officials at Spectrum owner Charter Communications have said.

A key point in making the process go smoothly was that the vast majority of customers already have adopted digital devices for at least one television in their homes, he said. Only those television sets that had been connected directly to the cable outlet on the wall needed a digital receiver.

In other parts of Ohio, when the digital upgrade occurred, there was confusion, frustration and even some outrage, according to news reports. In an attempt to prevent such issues, Spectrum notified customers about upgrade dates via direct mail, bill messages, phone calls and messages that appeared on their televisions.

In addition, Columbus was one of the last of the former Time Warner Cable markets to get the complete upgrade, “and (Spectrum owner) Charter has done it a lot, so they brought a real focus to it,” Pedelty said.