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The Dartmouth
September 22, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Construction hinders cable reception

Because of construction, an antiquated network and provider problems, the campus has been plagued by poor cable reception since the beginning of this year. The River, Choates and Gold Coast clusters seem to be the areas of campus most affected by inferior cable reception.

"Students should not be forced to pay for something guaranteed by the school that they are not receiving," Jonathan Simpson '08 said. "This problem has been overlooked by the school for months and inhibits students' use of television as a medium for education as well as recreation."

Director of Network Services Frank Archambeault said that the College is aware of the campus' reception problems and that they were partially caused by an accident during construction on Tuck Drive that destroyed a main cable feeder. This feeder is currently unearthed and barely spliced together, causing most of the problems in the River and Choates clusters, but is expected to be fixed by the end of June.

Students living in the Bissell and Cohen residence halls of the Choates cluster and at 19 East Wheelock St. must rent the Set Top Box, a type of cable box, from the computer store in order to obtain cable reception in their rooms.

"I don't want to pay $100 for something that's free for the rest of the campus," said Bissell resident Alex Cook '09 about the Set Top Boxes.

Archambeault said that residents of these dorms have to rent the Set Top Box because the campus is currently being transferred to a new system in which cable comes through the internet instead of the regular system. Under this new initiative, television can soon be watched through the internet in the format of streaming video when accessing the internet through an ethernet cable.

DarTV, as this new feature is called, is the most viable alternative for students who receive substandard cable reception. However, this feature received a mixed reception from the campus as some students dislike connecting to the internet through a wire and watching television on a laptop.

"I actually find DarTV hard to use, and it's really inconvenient because you have to have an Ethernet connection available," Ayla Glass '09 said. "Also, it is less awkward to watch television on an actual TV rather than a clumsy laptop with a little screen."

Other students find DarTV to be a convenient, acceptable alternative to regular cable television.

"I just think it's really cool that we have DarTV because most campuses don't have the option of watching television on computers without a cable tuner," Matt Brumberg '07 said. "I can watch a show on the computer if the TV in the lounge is occupied."

When the College's contract with current cable provider Adelphia expires in July, Dartmouth will switch to a satellite cable provider, according to Student Assembly member Corey Chu '08. This change will likely result in wider variety of channel selection.

Staff Reporter Zach Swiss contributed to this article.