Telephone Rates May Keep Rising : Telecommunications: The increases--in the wake of eight years of price cuts--are likely to continue as carriers retreat from the bruising competition that followed deregulation.

After eight years of price cuts, long-distance telephone rates for most of the nation’s households are rising. And analysts said the trend is likely to continue as carriers retreat from the bruising competition that followed the breakup of American Telephone & Telegraph.

Industry leader AT&T;, as well as MCI and Sprint, on Thursday acknowledged the rate increases for 1991--which ranged from below 1% to nearly 3%. The increases were necessary, they said, because the cost of doing business also rose.

The increases come as the carriers back away from the intense price competition that hammered interstate phone rates down by 40% since 1984. Carriers instead are focusing their efforts on winning the loyalty of high-volume long-distance callers with special discount programs. While these plans can offer significant savings, it is estimated that less than one-third of the nation’s households enjoy bargain rates.

The trend toward high-volume discounts concerns consumer activists, who worry that low-income or elderly people who make few long-distance calls are subsidizing the low rates enjoyed by people who can afford to call more often. “We are moving away from the social commitment to inexpensive basic phone service,” said Audrie Krause, executive director of Toward Utility Rate Normalization, a San Francisco-based consumer group.

Representatives of the nation’s three largest long-distance carriers rejected the notion that affluent people benefit at the expense of those who can’t afford to make enough calls to qualify for a discount. “We do not view (basic) long-distance customers as a cash cow of any kind,” MCI spokesman John Swenson said.

For most consumers, the increase in long-distance rates last year was barely perceptible. Consumer Action, a San Francisco-based consumer advocacy organization, released a survey Thursday indicating that AT&T; rates rose by a fraction of a percent; MCI’s rose by 1.2%; and that Sprint’s rates shot up by 3.94%.

Consumer Action calculated the increases by comparing the costs of calling between four pairs of cities during the day, evening and at night to capture time-sensitive changes in phone rates.

The group noted that its survey is only a sampling and may not reflect actual rate changes experienced by consumers. In fact, Sprint disputed the survey’s findings, saying that it raised basic long-distance rates by 2.7% last year.

Consumer Action spokesman Michael Heffer said MCI and Sprint raised their rates to more closely match the rates set by AT&T;, the largest and usually the high-price carrier.

In a statement, Consumer Action Executive Director Ken McEldowney criticized the rate increases as unjustified. “At first glance, it looks as if the carriers are raising rates to offset revenue losses they may be incurring from their discount calling plans.”

But the carriers disputed this. AT&T; specifically attributed its rate jump to a government-ordered rise in the amount the firm must pay local phone companies to offset the cost of doing business in low-income areas.

While AT&T; would not disclose the size of the federally mandated cost increase, spokesman Michael D. Johnson said, “AT&T; did not pass along the full extent of our costs.”

Berge Ayvazian, a telecommunications analyst with the Yankee Group consulting firm in Boston, said rates rose in part because years of intensive price competition had eroded profits at the long-distance carriers. “They realized they were shooting themselves in the foot,” he said. “It was not in their best interest to continue to lower rates.”