CABLE UPGRADE WORK TO INTERRUPT SUBSCRIBER SERVICE.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Upgrades to increase channel capacity and Internet access will cause overnight and daytime disruptions in cable TV service for subscribers of Time Warner Communications, the company announced.

Company plans call for an expansion from its current 64 channels, said Walt Kostrzewski, general manager of Time Warner's Canyon Country office.

The improvements also will allow subscribers to use Road Runner, Time Warner's high-speed Internet access that connects computer users to the Information Superhighway up to 100 times faster than can be accomplished with a standard telephone modem, Kostrzewski said.

The upgrade is expected to cost about $8 million and be complete by the end of 2000. ``Within the next few weeks, we're going to start the construction phase,'' he said.

As one of the Santa Clarita Valley's two cable television franchises, Time Warner serves nearly 23,000 customers in Canyon Country, Agua Dulce, Sand Canyon, and parts of Newhall and Saugus.

Time Warner customers likely will see an increase in monthly cable fees to offset the company's costs in modernizing its system. ``As we add channels then, yes, that should not be a surprise to subscribers,'' Kostrzewski said.

The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the cable television industry, allows companies to pass on to customers the costs of increasing their programming, he noted.

Among the channels that Time Warner will add after the upgrade are the Fox News Channel, FX and The Travel Channel.

Work crews will install a hybrid of fiber optic and coaxial cable. ``What that will do is greatly reduce the number of amplifiers servicing the homes, and therefore greatly improve the stability of the signal,'' Kostrzewski said.

The fiber optic technology will mean fewer outages in cable service. Kostrzewski said there are hundreds of amplifiers scattered across the valley to carry the cable signal to subscribers' homes.

Time Warner last upgraded its cable system in the Santa Clarita Valley about a decade ago, he said.

The repairs will require crews to shut off cable service, usually for 45 minutes or less, between the hours of 12:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., Kostrzewski said. The company didn't want to interrupt TV signals during prime-time evening hours when most subscribers are home, he noted.

Upgrades will be conducted 500 homes at a time, and Time Warner will notify neighborhoods - cable subscribers and nonsubscribers alike - a month before repairs begin, via mail and notices hung on residents' front doors. On the average, crews will work about three weeks to complete each group of 500 homes.

Time Warner customers pay monthly fees of $11.73 plus taxes just to receive broadcast channels such as CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, WB and UPN. Subscribers pay $36.04 plus taxes to receive the standard package of basic cable channels, Kostrzewski said.

Besides being able to carry more cable channels, the systemwide upgrade will allow computer users quicker access to the World Wide Web. Increasingly, cable television companies have been marketing equipment that allows their subscribers much faster connections to the Internet - and the ability to download more data - than is possible over telephone lines that most computers currently use, Kostrzewski said.

Time Warner has about 276 miles of cable in its system in the Santa Clarita Valley, and crews will install about 230 miles of the new fiber-optic cable in the same trenches, he said.

In its notifications, the company asked that residents allow Time Warner crews to come on their property to work on the lines in front yards, back yards and on utility poles.