Charter Communications is joining the ranks of cable operators using their bandwidth to embrace high-definition television.

Charter says its systems in Alhambra/Pasadena and Glendale/Burbank in California; University Park, Texas; South Miami, Fla.; and Birmingham, Ala. will make HDTV available to subscribers during the second quarter of 2002. In the third quarter, Kalamazoo, Mich., and Charter hometown St. Louis will be added, among other undisclosed markets.

Charter's announcement follows a similar move by Comcast last week.

Charter says customers who ?use a special HDTV device from Charter? ? an HDTV-equipped cable box ? will be able to access HDTV programming. At this point, pure HDTV programming includes channels from HBO and Showtime. According to Andy Morgan, a Charter spokesperson, other channels will be ?up-converted to an HD format to give customers a better picture? ? the 1080i format with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

Plant upgrades are ongoing in the markets where Charter is launching HDTV. The initial five markets' total digital subscribership ? which Charter uses to analyze where HDTV might be popular ? is 249,000. Pricing will be determined by individual system managers, based on corporate guidelines, which have not yet been distributed.

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