DENVER -- The Public Utilities Commission may save Qwest customers a few dollars.

The PUC has temporarily blocked the phone company's proposal to charge a monthly fee to those who want their addresses kept private.

The PUC ordered hearings to determine whether the proposal is "just and reasonable," but delayed those hearings Wednesday.

Qwest currently provides the "omit address" service at no charge to residential and business customers, but they wanted to start charging customers on Nov. 1.

Customers who want to omit their addresses from the listings in the white pages and from directory assistance would be charged $1 a month for the service, Qwest proposed. That is not including one-time set-up fee of $8.50 for residential customers and $12 for business customers.

The PUC said that Qwest's proposal raises a number of concerns, including whether a monthly recurring charge was reasonable; whether Qwest already is recovering its costs for the white pages directory through basic rates; whether Qwest should be allowed to charge to suppress a customer's address information, which it does not own; and other privacy and safety concerns for many customers.

An administrative law judge will conduct the hearings on the proposal at a date to be determined later, a PUC press release stated.