1983-07-20 Public Hearings and Regular Meeting

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SW Bell files record request *for $1.7 billion revenue hike By Jackie Ca(mes Austin Bureau of The News AUSTIN — Southwestern Bell Telephone Co., in its first Texas case reflecting the impending breakup with giant American Tele- phone & Telegraph Co., filed a record $1.7 billion revenue request Friday that would triple the cost of a residential phone line. The $1.7 billion is nearly four times the size of any previous Bell request filed with the Public Utility Commission and is almost as much as the six previous rate cases com- S A C�; 0alla0)Rorninq)hW$ bined. Of the total, $1.2 billion would come from higher local rates. Long-distance rates would not increase. Rates for a one -party residential line would increase $19.60 state- wide — driving the monthly charge for residents of Dallas and many suburbs from $10.10 to $29.70. Proposed increases for business customers are substantially smaller, ranging from $10.25 more a month in the most populous areas around Houston to $15.65 in rural areas with the smallest calling scope. In Dallas, a one -party busi- Saturday, June 25, 1983 ness line would increase $12.40 monthly — from $24.50 to $36.90. Bell vice president . Paul Roth justified the request as being pri- marily the result of Federal Com- munications Commission decisions and the 1982 anti-trust settlement between the U.S. Justice Depart- ment and AT&T. The AT&T divesti- ture, which is still pending in fed- eral court, takes effect Jan. 1. "Without these changes," Roth said, "our filing today would be about $500 million — very similar in makeup to our request in previ- ous years." SW Bell seeks record revenue hike HISTORY dF BELL REQUESTS RIVDste Amount requested Amount granted 1976 $298.3 million $57.8 millio in $214.3 million $124.5 million im $243million • $138.8mllion 19611) $326.3 million $114.3 million 1981 $469.8 million $243.7 million 1982 $471.5 million $243.9 million* 'Bell reduced the $243 million to $143.7 million in line with federal anti-inflation guidelines. "These rates took effect last January, but Bell's ap- peal of the decision is still pending in an Austin district court. NOTE: Until the rate filing Friday, Bell had asked for more than $2 billion in higher revenues since the PUC began regulating telephone utilities in 1976. The PUC has granted $923 million — about 46 percent — of Bell's requests. The Dallas Morning News PUC chairman Al Erwin, noting that Bell's request is "the largest rate case ever filed in the United States," complained that "the only Please see SW BELL on Page 8A. 40 Continued from Page IA. beneficiary I can see is AT&T, other long-distance providers and high - volume long-distance users such as giant retailers. "The public itself does not have any, benefits — other than to face the possibility of seeing their basic phone -service cost tripled," he said. Erwin scheduled regional hear- ings in July in six cities to hear public testimony on Bell's request. The;date for a.hearing in Dallas is July, 11. The PUC has 185 days, or until late December, to make a de- cision. Historically, the PUC has granted Bell a fraction of its re- quests. "There's no assumption here that one penny is necessary," Erwin said of the request Friday. Gov. Mark White said, "it sounds like:thefte trying to reach out and touch someone." The case is a major challenge for White, who campaigned for lower utility rates and since has ap- pointed all three PUC members. Both White and Erwin indicated that Erwin will be renamed to the PUC when his term expires Aug. 31, allowing him to complete the Bell cass. Bristling at descriptions of local rates tripling, Roth said: "Let's keep things in perspective.... Our residential customers now pay about 35 cents a day for local tele- p e service — less than the one- wbus fare in Austin. . e're asking that they pay ap- p 'matly,65:cents a day more," hO _ id. "Telephone service'would th cost about the same per day as ak of cigarettes or a round-trip blkliticket in Austin and a little In* -than cable TV — still, I think, ott of the better values in the . h hold budget." breakdown of the $1.7 billion in lades S502 million to cover busi- neA,..expenses and to pay investors a 1*57 percent return; $450 million for; faster depreciation of equip- ment; $249 million in "access ch>irges" to ratepayers to subsidize th long-distance revenues Bell is losl`iig to AT&T, and $504 million in similar access charges to independ- en Iong-distance companies, such, as MCI Communications Corp., to