SNET rolls out the cable carpet >BY SHIRA LEVINE, New Media Editor

Southern New England Telecommunications will launch its SNET Americast cable TV service in Unionville, Conn., this week-the first step toward fully wiring the state with its integrated hybrid fiber/coax network by 2009.

The telco will use Scientific-Atlanta's 8600X advanced analog set-top boxes, StarSight Telecast's interactive program guide and CableData's Intelecable subscriber management system in its Americast rollout, a SNET spokeswoman said.

SNET started building its I-SNET HFC network in early 1994. The telco filed for video dial tone authority but scrapped those plans in early 1996 in favor of a cable TV strategy. Amid cable industry protests, the telco received the country's first statewide cable TV franchise last summer (Telephony, Aug. 12, 1996, page 14).

The latest controversy surrounding SNET's network came earlier this year, when incumbent cable operator Cablevision of Connecticut complained to the state utility that the powering cable SNET used for the telephony portion of its network was unsafe. Ultimately, a National Electrical Safety Code panel ruled against SNET's application to use the cable, and the telco is replacing it. SNET will add telephony to its network later this year, the spokeswoman said.

This week's channel chatter ON-LINE Backhanded compliment A recent survey found that telcos don't rank too badly with consumers as far as customer service goes-thousands placed them above doctors and on-line computer services. 30,000-mile view The CTIA's Wireless '97 comes off subtle but significant. The earth may not have moved in San Francisco, but product did.

OFF-LINE Cut the deck already Just a few months after TCI split its systems into three divisions, its new president is talking about divvying them up by geographic region. This is supposed to raise the stock price? Pizza, pizza AT&T Wireless wants everyone to call its home base station a pizza box. The industry won't let it happen unless AT&T guarantees 30-minute delivery.