As telephone, satellite and cable companies have continued to play technological leapfrog, your service has been getting better.

Some of the enhancements have happened because of new technologies, some as companies buy other companies, thereby pushing existing technologies to new customers. So don't be surprised if this week or sometime in the near future, your television becomes smarter -- allowing you to gain access to more and better video-on-demand (VOD) programming.

That's the goal of Comcast, which during the past year has split the systems and customers of the now-defunct Adelphia Communications with Time-Warner Cable. Since obtaining those valuable Adelphia customers, Comcast has been upgrading the systems and networks in the areas formerly served by Adelphia, and is now splashing out with one of its major products -- enhanced video on demand.

It's not that Adelphia customers didn't have VOD before. They did, but not to the extent that Comcast offers it. As I write this (being served by a former Adelphia system), my home can receive some music on demand channels, buy some movies, and get a small number of news and sports reports -- not enough to make the system particularly compelling to use regularly. By the time you read this though, Comcast will have upgraded the system serving my home, allowing me -- and all my neighbors with cable connections -- to view 8,000 VOD offerings.

That includes the VOD offerings that were already offered by Adelphia, as well as more movies to buy, special programs produced by local broadcasters and nonprofit groups, and sports programming of local interest. In the Pittsburgh area, that means "Steelers 24/7," where sports fans can view behind-the-scenes looks, interviews with players, and other special Steelers programming. The key, though, is that sports diehards can view these programs whenever and as often as they want -- because it uses a two-way communications technology that calls up the programming with a couple button pushes on the viewer's remote control.

While the experience of the enhanced VOD may look simple, it has taken the engineers many months to upgrade the systems, enhance the software, and deploy it so viewers can see it. According to Fran Gomez, director of engineering at Comcast, the deployment is being run by each city group for its own cluster of systems, and that it may not hit all viewers at the same time. In the Pittsburgh area, certain suburbs, mainly in the south and east (including Bethel Park, Monroeville and New Castle in the North) are being switched on during the first week of February. Others may have to wait a few weeks.

I spent some time with Mr. Gomez in the Comcast operations center in late January, where engineers were diligently working on getting the software together for the Adelphia systems. Like engineers in software companies readying new releases, the Comcast engineers were focused on last-minute details to make sure the product was complete, stable and ready.

As they hit the streets, the current systems will be able to handle up to 50 simultaneous households in each neighborhood who are watching different VOD programs streaming on their systems. (Most viewing comes from non-VOD programming.)

With 95 percent of the programming free, it's a good bet that many new VOD users will emerge. Every time they request a VOD program, they'll be able to see what they want, from the beginning, starting within one minute after pushing a button on their remote controls. And it should get even faster. Mr. Gomez and Comcast VOD engineer Dana Nesiti have set a goal to start your program within 10 seconds of receiving the request.