Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 23, 1994                   TAG: 9407260006
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SCC SETS HEARINGS ON SALEM-NEW RIVER TOLL-FREE CALLS

The complaints are about the phone company's plan to expand local calling areas at exchanges in Salem and Montgomery, Giles and Pulaski counties. The service would come with a price: higher monthly phone rates.

Bell Atlantic-Virginia applied to the commission in December, reasoning that people in adjacent exchanges have shared interests and, thus, more reason to call each other, said Don Reid, Bell Atlantic's regional manager.

In mid-January, the SCC routinely ordered Bell Atlantic to notify the affected customers by mail. Whenever at least 20 telephone customers in an exchange oppose a change, the SCC is required to hold a public hearing before making its decision.

Assuming SCC approval of a new Blacksburg-Salem-Shawsville local-calling area, Bell Atlantic included Blacksburg telephone numbers in its 1994 Roanoke-Salem telephone directory, which was distributed in March.

However, 49 phone customers in Blacksburg objected to paying the the extra cost of including them in a local calling area with Salem and Shawsville. Bell Atlantic has about a half-dozen local rates in Virginia that vary in cost depending on the number of customers in a local calling area.

They didn't want to pay the proposed 73 cents more a month for residential customers - $3.74 a month for business customers - for local phone service, said Allen Wickham, manager of operations for the SCC's communications division.

On the other hand, there were few objections to the increase in rates in the Shawsville area. Wickham said he had received much interest from computer users in Shawsville who want to be included in a local-calling area with Blacksburg, so they can connect more cheaply to the Blacksburg Electronic Village.

Two hearings on the Blacksburg-Shawsville-Salem calling area proposal will be held Wednesday at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Christiansburg, at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

There also were enough objections to Bell Atlantic's proposal to place Dublin, Pearisburg, Pulaski and Radford in the same local calling area that public hearings were required for that plan, Wickham said.

Twenty-nine customers in the Pearisburg exchange opposed the change. It would raise their residential phone bills $1.79 a month, and business bills by $10.77.

The commission received 118 letters from customers in Pulaski objecting to the change. They didn't want to pay an additional $1.02 monthly for residential service or $7.05 for business service in exchange for local calling to Pearisburg and Radford.

Also, 57 Dublin phone customers didn't like the idea of paying 68 cents more per month for residential service or $3.72 for business service to make local calls to Pearisburg.

Hearings have been set for 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Tuesday at the Pulaski County Administration Building and Thursday at the Giles County Circuit Courtroom.

An SCC hearing examiner will conduct the hearings and then make a recommendation to the three-judge commission. What the public has to say in the hearings will have a "considerable bearing" on what the recommendations will be, Wickham said.

The Christiansburg exchange was not included in the proposal that would put Blacksburg in a local-calling area with Salem, because the boundaries of the Christiansburg exchange do not connect with those of the Salem exchange. The Blacksburg and Salem exchanges do have a common boundary.

The Christiansburg-Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce is considering asking that Christiansburg be included in a local-calling area with Salem and Roanoke, said Kathy Mantz, chamber director. Christiansburg already shares local calling with Blacksburg, Shawsville and Radford.

Under state law 5 percent of the phone customers within an exchange can petition the SCC for extended local calling, Reid explained.

When they receive a petition the commission asks the phone company to study what the cost of the expanded service would be. Then a ballot is mailed to phone customers within the affected area. If at least 50 percent of customers vote and of them a majority vote for it, they can have expanded service immediately unless rates are expected to rise by more than 5 percent. In the case of higher rates customer