By K. NANCOO-RUSSELL

Freeport News Reporter

Despite concerns by customers about the switch from analog to digital cable that is currently taking place in the United States, Cable Bahamas officials are assuring the public that the move does not affect its service in The Bahamas.

David Burrows, director of Marketing at Cable Baha-mas, explained to The Freeport News yesterday that the only persons who may experience any changes as a result of this switch are those who rely on antennas to pick up a signal.

"This is really a United States initiative and its for broadcast channels, so it really doesn't impact anything here because the only broadcast channel that we have is ZNS and to my knowledge, I have not heard of ZNS going digital," he said.

"So, unless you are talking about maybe channels that are being received from the U.S. , they are the only people that are being affected. If you're picking up any of those U.S. channels with an antenna and you do not have a digital television, you won't be seeing them."

Burrows said that number will be minimal since most people in The Bahamas do not have antennas anymore.

He explained that regular cable customers will not be impacted in any way since none of the content that is received from cable television is broadcast.

"If you are a cable customer, it doesn't impact you at all because you will have cable television that has already been secured, be it analog or digital and of course you have digital set top boxes so that doesn't impact any of the signals that we provide," he assured.

According to the Federal Communication Commis-sion's website, starting February 17, 2009, U.S. federal law will require that all television broadcast stations stop broadcasting in analog format and broadcast only in digital format.

This step was mandated by Congress in an effort to free up frequencies for public safety communications such as police, fire, and emergency rescue.

In addition, some of the freed up frequencies will be used for advanced commercial wireless services for consumers.

This means that analog broadcast tuners will require a converter box after the above-mentioned date to receive over-the-air broadcasts with an antenna because of the transition to digital broadcasting.

Analog-only televisions should continue to work as before with cable and satellite TV services, gaming consoles, VCRs, DVD players, and similar products.

Since March 1, 2007, all television receivers shipped interstate or imported into the United States must contain a digital tuner.

In addition, effective May 25, 2007, the Commission required sellers of television receiving equipment that does not include a digital tuner to disclose at the point-of-sale that such devices include only an analog tuner, and therefore will require a digital-to-analog converter box to receive over-the-air broadcast television after the transition date.