DENVER -- Qwest Communications International wants to charge telephone customers in four states $1 a month to withhold their addresses from the phone book and directory assistance.

Qwest wants add the fee in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico and Idaho. The company plans to ask for the fee in the 10 other states where it provides local phone service next year, spokesman Audrey Mautner said Tuesday.

The service is now free.

Qwest filed its request for the increase Monday with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, which could decide by Oct. 31. If approved, the charge would begin Nov. 1, spokesman Terry Bote said.

It was not clear when the request would be filed with regulators in the other states.

Mautner said Qwest wants to charge for the omit-address service because it costs the company.

No waivers would be available in Colorado to domestic abuse victims or others who need to keep their addresses unlisted but cannot afford the fee. Mautner said Colorado law does not allow it.

The Colorado Office of Consumer Counsel, a utility oversight agency, probably will oppose the fee, director Ken Reif said.

Reif said the cost of adding or withholding addresses in phone books and directory assistance is part of basic service rates and Qwest has no right to increase it, he said.