Rate Study May Spur Tougher Cable Rules : Television: FCC report indicates fees have risen for 30% of people served by nation’s 25 biggest operators.

A soon-to-be-released government study showing that cable television rates are still rising for millions of subscribers is providing ammunition for federal regulators to impose tougher pricing rules on the nation’s 11,000 cable operators.

Preliminary results from a study by the Federal Communications Commission indicate that 10 months of federal cable rate regulation have actually caused monthly fees to climb for 30% of the customers of the nation’s 25 largest cable operators. Rates fell for the other 70%.

“I think 30% is a little more than Congress or the FCC intended,” FCC Commissioner James Quello said. “I think there will be more action taken to lower rates and give the consumer some relief.”

That could complicate ambitious plans announced by many cable companies, such as Tele-Communications Inc. and Time Warner Inc., to spend billions of dollars to replace their copper wires with higher-capacity fiber-optic cable.

“I don’t think you want to take harsh action that would have a chilling effect on the kinds of major investments this industry can make in building the information superhighway,” said Torie Clarke, a vice president of the National Cable Television Assn.

But critics scoffed at such industry warnings. One FCC official asked, “Does that mean we should also let the phone companies charge an unregulated monopoly price because they want to get into the information highway business too?”

Concerned about escalating rates and poor service, Congress passed the cable act with the intent of mandating improvements in service, lowering prices and fostering more competition. When the FCC announced a rollback of cable rates last April--mandated by the cable act--the agency said its goal was to cut cable bills an average of 10% and save consumers $1 billion a year.

But the failure of the law to lower rates for everyone has led to an uproar among consumer groups and congressional calls for tougher enforcement.

“When people voted for the cable act, they weren’t voting for 30% of cable subscribers to have a rate increase,” Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House telecommunications and finance subcommittee, said through a spokesman.

Sources said FCC officials are studying whether to change the so-called benchmark rate from which cable operators must base their pricing. Consumer groups contend that this rate--based on prevailing rates charged by cable operators in 1992--was not set low enough to begin with.

But in a concession to small cable operators, who have long complained that they have higher costs, the FCC is considering granting more pricing flexibility to operators serving only a few thousand subscribers.

In the meantime, agency sources indicated that the FCC will extend the current freeze on cable revenue increases beyond a Feb. 15 deadline. They said the move will ensure that prices will not rise during the period before new cable rate rules could take effect.

The politics of cable regulation will present a key test for Reed Hundt, who took over as FCC chairman in December. Hundt, a close friend of Vice President Al Gore, has a reputation as an aggressive regulator. FCC officials close to Hundt said they don’t believe FCC rules have financially hurt cable companies at all. One official noted that only five cable companies have asked for a waiver of federal pricing regulation on the grounds that the rules would cause them economic harm.

The intricate cable rate rules have stirred as much consumer ire against the new rules as they have against cable companies, according to a new Louis Harris poll conducted for the National Consumers League. The survey of subscribers found that 50% reported their rates had gone up since Sept. 1, and more blamed it on the new law than on the cable operators.