NATCHEZ — Natchez CableOne subscribers may see a clearer picture in their cable reception as early as this morning, CableOne Manager Bobby McCool announced during Tuesday’s Natchez Board of Aldermen meeting.

As he discussed cable issues with city leaders, McCool said engineers were performing final tests on a fiber optic system connecting Natchez to Jackson. The fiber optic cable will provide a clearer picture for channels that have been traditionally noisy.

If the tests go as planned, residents will see a noticeable difference in their cable reception.

McCool also said that despite the U.S. Congress’s plans to move back the deadline for digital conversion from Feb. 17 to June 12, the company’s changes to local channels will remain in place.

Several channels have been lost in the transition from analog to digital.

Digital signals cannot travel such far distances as analog, and duplicate cable channels carrying Louisiana news have been lost in the changeover.

“We’ve gotten a lot of complaints,” McCool said. “It’s been a nightmare for us.”

The channels from Jackson have been salvaged by CableOne routing the fiber optic cable to receive the signals.

“We’ve made every effort we can to bring in these stations with a fiber optic cable,” he said.

While the channels have been saved, it’s come at a price.

“Now we’re paying higher prices to keep what we’ve got,” McCool said.

And while he said he was hesitant to say definitively that there would be rate changes, he said cable rates will more than likely increase to compensate.

The channels that will no longer be broadcast are WBRZ, KLAX, KALB and KNOE.

In Vidalia, the lost channels are WBRZ, KARD and KALB.

McCool said many residents were concerned that they would no longer be getting Louisiana weather.

But McCool said CableOne has purchased from the Weather Channel a package that would include Vidalia weather, in addition to the already-reported Natchez weather.