Many students were watching less television last week because of complications with the cable service, but as Mediacom finishes construction, on-campus students are experiencing fewer problems while cable service is still pooroff campus.

Mediacom started construction to upgrade their system two months ago, installing a new system of cable wiring throughout Charleston, said Bill Copland, general manager of Mediacom. The company is replacing coax cable with a fiber optic line that will provide better service and reception to costumers.

The construction has caused poor cable service on and off campus. Most on-campus students said they experienced the most problems last week, and reception improved earlier this week. However, off campus students said certain channels still come in fuzzy and cut out.

“It was really bad. It was cutting out a lot at first,” said Erin Alderson, a sophomore English major, who lives on-campus. “Sometimes the picture would be just awful. It wasn’t even worth watching. The movie channel was just blue screen for the longest time.”

Most students experienced what they called a “fuzzy” picture.

“Its been fuzzy. It was fuzzy for a few days in a row, but now it’s fine,” Travis White, a math secondary education major, said.

Anna Lee, a senior speech communications major who lives off campus, however, is still dealing with the inconveniences of her bad cable connection two or three times a week.

“It’s like not having any cable; you turn it on and it’s a gray screen with fuzz,” Lee said.

“It s a little irritating if I have 30 minutes of freedom, and I want to just sit around and watch TV.”

The cut-outs and poor pictures are sporadic, off-campus students said.

“We experienced some of that. (Wednesday) it cut out for a little. I’m not going to wait around ’till it comes back on,” said Bobby Ewan, a senior industrial technology major who lives off-campus. “It was more frequent a couple of weeks ago, lately it hasn’t been that bad.”

Mark Hudson, director or housing and dining, said if any on-campus students are still having problems they should cease by the end of the week as crews finish up construction on Eastern’s cable line near Buzzard Hall.

Though Mediacom does have a set deadline for finishing the construction affecting off-campus areas, Copland was unsure of that date at press time. Mediacom needs the city to approve permits and negotiate a franchise agreement, giving them the right to work within the city. He said he hopes the entire Charleston area will be 90 percent completed by mid-December.

The new cable wiring will not only affect quality on campus, Hudson said, but will make cable more reliable. Campus cable will no longer be affected by city problems.

“We’ll almost be run like we’re our own town,” he said.

Upgrades will not affect on-campus cable rates because the university has contracted rates through a different company, he said.