Prodigy Offers to Reinstate Rate Protesters : Technology: Twelve irate subscribers may rejoin the network if they promise to abide by certain guidelines.

Prodigy Services Co., the electronic computer service, said Wednesday that it has offered to reinstate a group of a dozen subscribers whose services were cut off after they protested the company’s new policy of charging fees for electronic mail.

Brian Ek, spokesman for the White Plains, N.Y.-based joint venture of International Business Machines Corp. and Sears, Roebuck & Co., said Prodigy sent letters to the subscribers whose accounts were terminated in the past month, inviting them to rejoin the network if they agree to abide by certain guidelines.

However, Ek said the offer does not change the company’s intent to begin charging fees for electronic mail on Jan. 1. With Prodigy software, users of personal computers can dial the service by modem and access a wide array of electronic communications services, from airline reservations to home-shopping networks.

The announcement of the fees in September sparked protests from some of the service’s 650,000 subscribers.

Recently, the dozen subscribers disclosed that Prodigy had cut off their service for allegedly harassing members with protest mail. They claimed that the action amounted to censorship.

Meantime, the Texas Attorney General’s Office is investigating Prodigy’s advertising claims related to the electronic messaging fees, according to Ek. He said the company is cooperating with the investigation.

Prodigy’s new policy allows subscribers 30 free messages a month and charges 25 cents for each additional message. In October, the company raised its flat monthly service fee from $9.95 to $12.95, although annual subscriptions are available at $9.95 a month.

In reinstating the members, Ek said Prodigy is revising its messaging guidelines to spell out exactly what members are allowed to do and what activities constitute harassment, which is grounds for disconnection of service.

The new guidelines do not allow members to send chain letters, contact advertisers, use automated messaging programs to distribute mass mailings, or sell products without Prodigy’s consent.

Subscribers who send more than 100 messages per day or 500 per month must provide credit card information to Prodigy.

Russ Singer, a Huntington Beach resident who led the subscriber protest, said he had not decided whether to accept Prodigy’s reinstatement offer and was disappointed with the new guidelines.