Cable TV Ready for City; No Plans for Harvard Yet

While cable television will be available to all of Cambridge in the next six months, Harvard students may be left hanging indefinitely while the University decides whether to make cable television an option in the residential houses.

More than 10,000 of the 41,000 households in Cambridge currently have working cable television, and the cable company hopes an additional 10,000 households will opt for the system by the end of 1987.

Of the 123 miles of cable that have been laid in the city some still need to be activated in Western Cambridge, said Edward T. Holleran Jr., vice president of American Cablesystems.

The company will complete full cable service on schedule and within the $14 million budget, Holleran said.

But Harvard students hankering for an MTV fix in the comfort of their common rooms might not get a chance.

"American Cablesystems is in- terested in serving the Harvard community, butthat will depend on student interest and theeconomic feasibility of the project," saidHenrietta Gates, director of operations forAmerican Cablesystems.

The company has met two or three times duringthe past year with a committee from the HarvardOffice of Information Technology (OIT), but so farno decisions have been made about the future ofcable on campus, said Holleran.

If Harvard does decide to go cable, Gatesforsees an initial "case by case" process ofwiring student rooms to assess student interestbefore wiring every room in the houses.

Some Harvard Real Estate property now has freecable taps, said Stephen C. Hall, director of theOIT.

"There has not been a lot of interest expressedon the part of the students, nor has there been alarge cry for applications by the faculty forvideo instruction," says Hall.

"[It is] a consumer question. In themarketplace, cable isn't as popular as VCRs," saysHall. However, he added that "now, we shouldinstead spend the money on things that would mostbenefit excellence in instruction.