Small Cable Operators May Raise Prices : Television: The FCC ruling could boost monthly bills by as much as $19.20.

Small cable company managers, who had been squeezed by federal price regulation, said Sunday they were heartened by a government ruling allowing them to raise their rates.

“This will help these systems, which have been struggling, to continue to offer service and upgrade service to subscribers,” said Rich D’Amato, spokesman for the National Cable Television Assn., which was holding its convention in Dallas.

The Federal Communications Commission voted Friday to allow small cable systems to increase rates. The limited ruling affects 66% of the nation’s more than 11,000 cable systems, and 12.1% of the roughly 60 million cable customers, the FCC said.

Although the ruling could boost monthly bills by as much as $19.20, cable industry attorneys said rate hikes will likely be much lower. Increases will depend on each system’s existing charges and the number of channels it offers.

The ruling only covers customers of small cable systems serving 15,000 or fewer people that are owned by companies with 400,000 or fewer subscribers, the FCC said.

The commission said the relief was needed “because of the unique characteristics of small systems and their generally higher costs related to those of larger companies.”

Congress, which ordered the FCC to regulate cable rates in 1992, also allowed it to give special treatment to small systems to minimize regulatory burdens.

“The commission has concluded that this simple mechanism will best serve a segment of the cable industry that needs further assistance in complying with rate regulation while serving subscribers better and growing their businesses,” the FCC said.

The FCC also ruled that if a small cable system using the new rate relief is acquired by a larger company, the system could continue charging the higher rates.

Under the new ruling, small systems would get to charge up to $1.24 a month per regulated channel. Most of the systems covered by the ruling currently charge about 60 cents a month.

Because the typical cable system has 30 channels, monthly bills could rise by as much as $19.20.

The ruling would also allow small systems to raise rates without having to file long forms with regulators, as they do when they seek to charge a rate higher than regulations permit.

Cable rate regulation first took effect in September, 1993, when the FCC ordered a 10% cut in rates. A second order last year told systems to cut rates by another 7%.

Small systems were particularly hard hit by price regulation, with some companies filing for bankruptcy protection.

In a speech to the convention Sunday, James Quello, an FCC commissioner, said the cable industry should be further deregulated because of competition emerging from high-powered satellite companies and telephone companies.