By Mike Boyer
Enquirer staff writer

Ohio utility regulators Wednesday approved Cincinnati Bell Telephone's alternative regulation plan that will continue basic and Caller ID rates at current prices but allow price increases for other enhanced services.

A spokesman for the company, which has about a million customers in the Tristate, said the plan that takes effect today basically extends a regulatory scheme the company has operated under for a decade and "doesn't have any new pricing impact.''

But the Ohio Consumers' Counsel, which opposed the company's plan, said it could mean higher prices for consumers for such services as call forwarding, three-way calling and packages that Bell markets.

"The plan allows increased profits for a well-heeled telephone company at the expense of residential customers,'' said consumers' counsel Janine Migden-Ostrander.

Cincinnati Bell has had basic local rates frozen since 1994. But last month, it opted to become the fourth local phone company in the state to adopt the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio's elective alternative plan, which freezes basic rates but allows price hikes for other services - within limits.

Bell's "entry into the elective alternative regulation plan guarantees the company's customers price stability for their basic local exchange service and caller identification,'' said commission chairman Alan Schriber.

A Consumers' Counsel spokesman said that unlike the other companies under elective alternative regulation - including Sprint and SBC Ohio - Cincinnati Bell has no local competition.

But that's about to change as Time Warner Cable is launching local service via its cable network using Web-based technology.

The Consumers' Counsel and Communities United for Action, which represents low-income residents in Greater Cincinnati, also filed objections to Bell's request for a waiver under the alternative regulation plan for low-income residents.

The waiver sought by Bell would costs recipients of so-called lifeline rates about $1.3 million, said Noel Morgan, lawyer for CUFA.

The commission said it was holding "in abeyance'' Bell's request for a waiver and the objections to it.

The Bell regulation plan also:

• Caps for 24 months rates for second basic local exchange service lines and call waiting. After 24 months, upward pricing for these services will be limited to no more than a 10 percent increase in price per year until the current rates are doubled.

• Cap for 24 months third basic local exchange service lines, call trace, Centrex access lines, private branch exchange trunks, per line number identification blocking, nonpublished number service, N-1-1 service, and payphone access lines. After 24 months, these services will be limited to a cap that is double the initial rate for the life of the plan.

E-mail mboyer@enquirer.com