
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 10, 1994                    TAG: 9406100680 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: D3    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940610                                 LENGTH: Medium

FEW OBJECT TO PLAN TO EXPAND CALLING AREA

{LEAD} Bell Atlantic Corp.'s plan to eliminate long-distance charges for calls between South Hampton Roads and the Peninsula generated almost no opposition during a public-comment period that ended Thursday - a strong indication that the expanded-calling area will go into effect, as planned, Oct. 1.

``We received a relative handful of comments,'' said Alan Wickham, manager of operations for the State Corporation Commission's communications division. ``I would only conclude there's no real strong opposition to it.''

{REST} Bell Atlantic announced about a year ago that it planned to drop most toll charges between the south and north sides of Hampton Roads. The company overcame a challenge from MCI Communications Corp. to the plan last year, but still had to get through a public-comment period. Customers of the phone company were invited in May to comment on the plan.

Those in Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach had no reason to complain - their basic monthly rates would stay the same under the plan.

But in return for the greater no-toll range, customers in Suffolk and on the Peninsula face modest increases in their basic rates. Basic residential rates for those in Suffolk would rise from $13.59 to $14.33 a month; they'd go from $12.64 to $13.59 a month for customers in Newport News and Hampton.

Wickham said the strongest opposition to the planned changes in southeastern Virginia came from Cape Charles on the Eastern Shore.

Richard Barton, Cape Charles town manager, in late May wrote to the State Corporation Commission on behalf of the town's mayor and town council, asking for a formal hearing on Bell Atlantic's plan to include several South Hampton Roads cities in Cape Charles' local calling area.

In exchange for the expanded local calling, Cape Charles' basic monthly phone rates would rise dramatically - by 42 percent for residences and by 72 percent for businesses.

Barton said in his letter that town officials had ``serious'' concerns about their community's ability to afford such rate increases.

Wickham said the State Corporation Commission must decide whether to hold hearings, which could postpone Bell Atlantic's planned changes.

While such a hearing appears unlikely in the case of South Hampton Roads-Peninsula calling, he said, ``The commissioners make that call.''

A separate public-comment period for local customers of GTE Corp., which also plans to eliminate South Hampton Roads-Peninsula toll charges, is pending.

by CNB