Mediacom plans digital transition events in Cedar Rapids, North Liberty

Mediacom Communications Corp. is planning open houses in Cedar Rapids and North Liberty later this month to help area customers get digital adapters some will need when Family Cable channels convert to digital reception in March.

Customer events in Cedar Rapids will be held Friday and Saturday, Feb. 18 and Feb. 19, at Mediacom's office, 6300 Council St. NE.  Mediacom will expand its customer service space to accommodate additional customers and equipment demonstrations.

Customer service hours will be 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. each day.

A week later, Mediacom will distribute digital adapters at the North Liberty Community Center, 520 W Cherry St., during open house events Friday and Saturday, Feb. 25 and Feb. 26.  Customer service hours will be 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 25, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 26.

Mediacom employees will be on hand to answer questions about digital television technology and provide digital adapters for customers to use on non-digital televisions. The company's rent-free lease for digital adapters gives consumers a no-cost solution to bring digital cable channel reception to older televisions.

The adapter will display digital signals for channels 23 through 78 in Mediacom's Family Cable or “expanded” subscription set, as well as digital channels 87 to 123 in a basic set available to all customers.

The transition to an all-digital Family Cable lineup will occur during a three-week period in March and affects cable customers in a nine-county area, including Linn, Johnson and Iowa counties.  Mediacom officials have said the outdated technology of analog bandwidth is inefficient and its phase-out will expand network capacity for delivery of new high-definition channels and faster broadband service.