
DATE: Thursday, November 13, 1997           TAG: 9711130514

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   76 lines

BELL ATLANTIC HIKES LOCAL CALLS TO 35(CT) IT COSTS A DIME MORE TO USE PAY TELEPHONES.

The quarter dropped in value Wednesday - at least for pay phone users.

Bell Atlantic Corp. - the No. 1 local phone provider in the state - announced that the price of a local call from one of its pay phones would increase from a quarter to 35 cents.

The company immediately began converting its phones to the higher rate, a job that could take two or three months, spokesman Ells Edwards said.

Since 1984, the State Corporation Commission had limited the cost of a local pay phone call in Virginia to 25 cents.

``At 35 cents, the local call is still one of the best bargains in any market,'' Bell Atlantic-Virginia CEO Hugh Stallard said. ``Since 1984 . . . the cost of a cup of coffee has gone up nearly 85 percent, and a daily newspaper costs almost twice what it did then.''

On Oct. 7, the Federal Communications Commission removed states' controls over pay phone rates, to comply with last year's Telecommunications Act.

The Virginia SCC had appealed the FCC's authority to deregulate pay phone costs, but the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals in early July upheld the FCC's position.

After Oct. 7, several pay phone operators in Virginia and Hampton Roads quickly raised local pay phone calls to 35 cents.

``It's a pain in the butt - 35 cents to use a telephone locally, it's too much,'' said Lamont Manley, a 21-year old Suffolk resident using a phone on Norfolk's Granby Street. ``You might can scramble up a quarter, but it's harder to scramble up a quarter and a dime.''

Manley was surprised Wednesday to find a pay phone that cost a quarter, because most phones he had used lately had already increased the cost to 35 cents, he said. Bell Atlantic's actions will push the number of 35-cent phones even higher.

Local exchange carriers such as Bell Atlantic and GTE Corp. own the bulk of Virginia's pay phones. Local exchange companies own nearly 40,000 of Virginia's 52,000 pay phones, said Andrea Leeman, spokeswoman for the State Corporation Commission.

GTE Corp. owns about 4,000 pay phones in the state, including 445 in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, spokeswoman Lacy Yeatts said. The company has ``no immediate plans'' to increase its 25-cent rate, she said.

Bell Atlantic would not disclose how many pay phones it has in Virginia or Hampton Roads, but it has 400,000 in its Maine-to-Virginia territory, Edwards said.

Bell Atlantic says that since the SCC established the 25-cent limit, the cost of maintaining pay phones has gone up. The New York-based Baby Bell also says its phones are more reliable than those owned by other companies.

``What's the customer's reaction to all this?'' Edwards said. ``Basically, it's acceptance that this is a reasonable rate.''

Pay phone users reacted differently Wednesday afternoon. Jasper Robertson, a Portsmouth man who works for a moving company, had stopped at some pay phones at a Princess Anne Road convenience store.

Robertson has to use pay phones almost daily when his company pages him. He had been in the habit the past few weeks of trying to find Bell Atlantic pay phones, since their prices hadn't increased yet.

The phones at this convenience store, owned by Peoples Telephone Co. of Miami, had 25-cent labels. But when Robertson went to make a call, a voice told him to deposit another 10 cents.

``Thirty-five cents, that's a lot for a phone call,'' Robertson said. ``They charge us enough just to have a telephone at home.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

NHAT MEYER/The Virginian-Pilot

Bell Atlantic is following other operators in raising the cost of

making a call at its pay phones to 35 cents.

Photo

NHAT MEYER/The Virginian-Pilot

Jasper Robinson of Portsmouth uses a pay telephone in Norfolk. The

cost of his call rose to 35 cents, the first such increase since

1984, Bell Atlantic officials say. Other phone companies in Virginia

have already raised their prices.