THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 21, 1995 TAG: 9511210268
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
Responding to an outcry from its customers, GTE Corp. on Monday filed a new proposal that would moderate planned increases in basic monthly phone bills. The company also withdrew a requested increase from 25 cents to 35 cents in pay-phone charges.
GTE, the state's second-largest phone company behind Bell Atlantic Corp., said it trimmed proposed rate increases for nearly all of its Virginia customers, including most of its 70,000 ratepayers in South Hampton Roads and western Tidewater.
Rates would still go up dramatically for GTE customers in rural communities, but not nearly as much as originally proposed. In the phone company's most heavily populated service areas, like Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, rate increases would remain comparatively modest.
GTE proposed the increases in basic monthly rates in a filing last June with the State Corporation Commission. It was the most sweeping rate restructuring proposed by the company in more than a decade.
In return for the higher monthly rates, the phone company said it would greatly increase the local calling territories for most of its customers, reducing toll charges. For instance, GTE's customers in South Hampton Roads would gain no-toll calling to most of the Peninsula.
But during a recent public comment period, more than 98 percent of 21,000 people sending letters or petitions to the state commission criticized the GTE plan.
``Clearly, the amount of basic monthly local service rates, despite the fact that we have not increased local rates in more than 11 years, was a major issue for a number of our customers,'' conceded Ed Weise, president of GTE's Virginia phone operations.
Under GTE's new proposal, residential customers in Courtland, a small town west of Franklin, face an increase of $3.71 a month, or 36 percent, for flat-rate service. The original GTE proposal would have increased those same customers' rates by $9.21 a month, or 89 percent.
Rates for residential customers in Windsor in Isle of Wight County would still rise dramatically, by $10.14 a month, or more than 150 percent. Under the phone company's previous proposal they'd have increased by $12.89 monthly or 193 percent.
On the other hand, GTE residential customers in southern Virginia Beach would pay $3.38 a month more for flat-rate service under GTE's new proposal, a 25 percent rise. The new proposed rate increase is 25 cents less per month than GTE originally requested.
GTE could put the new rates in effect as early as Jan. 1. But the rates won't become final until the corporation commission completes a series of public hearings early next year and then renders its own decision.
The phone company contended that even with the increases in basic monthly rates, it still expects to collect about $1 million a year less from its Virginia customers - a decline of about 0.4 percent - if the corporation commission approves its latest proposal.
That's largely because it expects to collect substantially less in long-distance charges as its customers gain a much wider local calling area.
GTE still wants to raise charges for directory assistance from 29 cents to 50 cents per call. But those charges would only kick in starting with the fourth directory-assistance call of the month. In its latest proposal, GTE rescinded its request to eliminate the current practice of three free directory-assistance calls each month.
GTE said it still will offer discount rates for customers who receive Medicaid and/or food stamps. The company also kept to its original proposal to eliminate the charge of $2 per month for customers who subscribe to TouchTone service. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
[Breakdown of flat-rate service in selected exchange:]
Current/OriginalProposal/New Proposal
[For copy of graphic, see microfilm]
KEYWORDS: PHONE RATES TELEPHONE RATES by CNB