But the company is looking for an alternative and the plan to lift the current surcharge 32 percent, to 82 cents from 62 cents, may not stay in place, Hawaiian Tel spokesman Calvin Tadaki said today.

Still, some way has to be found to cover the cost of installing single lines for customers now on party lines, mostly in outlying parts of the Big Island, he said.

Installing private lines for customers who do not have them is a $20.2 million project, Tadaki said.

The state Public Utilities Commission earlier asked Hawaiian Tel to come up with a plan in which the costs of installing the private lines would be shared by those rural customers and all telephone users in Hawaii.

The trouble is that too many of the rural customers are balking at their proposed charge, Tadaki said.

The charge can cost rural customers more than $130 a month until the company recovers its capital investment and Tadaki said fewer than one-fourth of rural customers have accepted the cost.

The company asked the PUC last month to let it increase the surcharge to all of its 650,000 customers to help cover the cost, Tadaki said.

"It's an adjustment only because the take rate is low," he said, referring to the percentage of rural customers who are willing to pay the price for private lines.

Tadaki said that the overall cost of installing private lines isn't high, considering it involves setting up a completely new infrastructure.

Charles Totto, state consumer advocate, said he wants to discuss alternatives with Hawaiian Tel and the PUC.

Meanwhile, in the major rural area affected, the Big Island's Kau district, the PUC already has approved the entry of a competitive telephone company in hopes that competition would reduce costs.

TelHawaii Inc., a local subsidiary of TelAlaska Inc., was selected in July as the Kau competitor. The company is still planning its entry into Kau. TelHawaii said it plans to spend up to $6 million on equipment in Kau.