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

DATE: SATURDAY, September 16, 1995                   TAG: 9509180046
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

FCC WANTS COX TO PAY $7.1 MILLION

Cox Communications Inc., one of the nation's largest cable companies, would pay $7.1 million plus interest to 1 million of its 3.1 million customers as part of a proposed rate dispute settlement, federal regulators said Friday.

The Atlanta-based company operates a cable television unit serving about 55,000 customers in the Roanoke Valley.

The proposed settlement, which would resolve 400 pending rate complaints against Cox, is subject to final approval by the Federal Communications Commission. It does not represent an admission by Cox of violating any FCC rate regulations.

If it is approved, Cox would have to return, either through refunds or credits, roughly $9 per affected customer - the largest per-subscriber amount yet, said FCC spokesman Morgan Broman.

Most Cox subscribers would get refunds, Broman said. Those subscribers are located in California, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Illinois, Washington, Connecticut and Nebraska.

In addition, the settlement calls for Cox to eliminate all charges to customers to have additional sets hooked up to cable. Broman said this would cost the company $1.2 million. The charges would be removed for customers of both regulated and nonregulated cable systems.

Also under the settlement, Cox would be permitted to move four channels now included in regulated services to an unregulated service.

Cox had no comment on the settlement.

by CNB