MUMBAI: Even as India is in the initial stages of digitalisation, Comcast Corp. is in the final process of ending analogue delivery of signals to its Chicago customers by July.

The cable giant is investing $400 million in the four-year upgrade of its network. Comcast will then start suburban upgrades which should end by 2008-end, the company has said.

Customers will, thus, have to exchange their analogue set-top boxes for digital ones. Comcast vice president of sales and marketing Eric Schaefer was quoted in media reports to have said that the cable company would not charge an additional fee or raise rates for current analogue customers.

Comcast will offer the set-top boxes at its office or mail it to their customers. The company will offer two additional high-definition channels in the coming months, increasing the total to 18 HD channels. The upgrade, though, has created space for as many as 120 HD channels, 400 digital channels and 10,000 streams of video on demand, Schaefer said.

Comcast‘s efforts are in line with the Federal deadline that requires all broadcasters to send signals in a digital format by February 2009.