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PUC's likely to get a real earful Grants Pass meeting will gather phone woes By PAUL FATTIG GRANTS PASS -- The Oregon Public Utility Commission will hold a meeting Monday to field complaints from US West customers about their telephone service. The hearing is in response to nearly 100 telephone company customer complaints from the area this year, according to the PUC. Complaints about "circuits busy" signals from the Grants Pass area jumped from 22 for all of 1998 to 89 in the first five months of this year, the PUC reported. A company spokesman said the firm is taking steps to resolve the problems. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Grants Pass city council chambers, 101 Northwest A St. The area has had eight straight months of substandard service which included call blocking levels well below PUC standards, according to PUC spokesman Ron Karten. In all but one of the past 16 months, the company has failed to meet the standards, he said. "We'll be looking at some kind of credits for customers who have unsatisfactory service," Karten said. Those credits, if awarded, would go toward telephone bills, he said. "We don't know how much -- it depends on the nature of the calls," he said. "Some people are experiencing devastating problems while others have no problems at all." Complaint forms will be handed out during the hearing. Similar hearings concerning US West service have been held in LaGrande, Oakridge, Roseburg and Newport. "In all four communities we have had an exceptional number of complaints," Karten said. "In Roseburg, there was a full house with an incredible array of complaints, from businesses doing international business to the guy on the street. But most of them were regular people with similar complaints." The firm is currently working to resolve the call blocking issue, a problem exacerbated by the influx of Internet users, said Gary Miller, area manager for US West. In August, the firm will have completed a project to expand its call-carrying capacity in the area, he said, adding that a new switch to be added next year will be a long-term solution. The firm has asked local residents to approach the problem "like a brownout" until the short-term solution is in place, he said. "The key thing is that we are working with the community," Miller said. "They are cooperating. We have the solution." US West is the largest local telephone company in Oregon with a 65 percent share of the state's local service. Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA