Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 11, 1993 TAG: 9311110039
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
The freeze, which the Federal Communications Commission imposed in April, was to have been lifted Monday.
The commission voted 2-1 Wednesday to extend the freeze, with Commissioner Andrew Barrett dissenting because he wanted the freeze lifted Jan. 15.
The extension will give local cable franchising authorities more time to file for FCC certification to regulate basic cable rates. It also will give consumers more time to file complaints with the FCC about any excessive charges beyond the basic package.
Rate regulation cannot be enforced until communities have received FCC certification that the local cable company operates as a monopoly and thereby is covered by the new law.
Once a community's franchising authority is certified, it can enforce the section of the law governing charges for basic service - the package of channels comprising local broadcasters and government and public access cable channels.
The FCC enforces the section of the law that dictates how much a company can charge for channels beyond basic service. But the commission will not take any action until it gets subscriber complaints.
The FCC says that it has received applications for certification from franchising authorities covering only 5,050 of the 33,000 communities in the country.
(In Western Virginia, some but not all localities have indicated the willingness to regulate cable television franchises and operations.)
Many questions have surfaced since cable companies announced billing changes in September to comply with the new cable law.
Variations in channel packaging and equipment charges caused individual bills to go up or down, but the freeze prohibited companies from collecting any more in overall revenue than they had six months earlier.
Preliminary results of an FCC survey of the 25 largest cable companies showed that 68 percent of subscribers saw decreases in their monthly charges while 31 percent experienced increases.
The commission still is analyzing the cable systems that price each channel individually after the basic service package.
Regulators have been concerned that such a pricing policy may flout the law. The final analysis of the survey is expected later this month.
The commission also is investigating 30 companies more deeply after receiving letters from mayors or local franchising agencies about the companies' billing practices.
by CNB