Residents of the Platte River Ranche and Pheasant Ridge subdivisions in Brighton, Eagle Creek in Commerce City, Sundance Homes in Dacono, Warren Farms in Fort Collins and Margil Farms in Mead are all affected.

The company, for now, is continuing to provide telephone service to 531 customers in the subdivisions but it has asked the Colorado Public Utilities Commission for permission to discontinue that service at the end of the month.

And no new orders are being accepted. That means you can get a home, but not a telephone, in those areas.

"This is a really troubling situation," said Dennis Welsch, division president of KB Home, builder of Platte River Ranch and Warren Farms.

Welsch said the developer recently found out about the problem and is assessing the number of homeowners who could be affected. Meanwhile, KB Home has devised a plan to provide basic cellular phone service to homeowners.

"But that's just a temporary fix," Welsch said. "We really need the PUC to push for a resolution."

KB Home has made an emergency filing for relief to the PUC, but commission officials admit they don't know quite what to do.

Barbara Fernandez, PUC spokeswoman, said that what makes this situation different is that Tess actually built local phone facilities to serve the six housing developments. Tess had an exclusive contract with the developers of those subdivisions.

Qwest Communications, which provides local telephone service to most of the Front Range, normally would be legally required to provide service in those neighborhoods. But because of Tess' exclusive contract, Qwest doesn't have lines or equipment in those areas.

An administrative law judge is reviewing the implications now.

Ken Reif, director of the Colorado Office of Consumer Counsel, a utility watchdog, agreed that the situation is problematic.

"We don't have a ready solution at the moment," Reif said. "Our intent is to try to make sure no one goes without a dial tone."

Klayton Fennell, Tess' executive director for planning and administration, said that the company believes Qwest, as the provider of last resort, "should honor its obligations to provide service."

But that would mean either that Qwest would have to build its own facilities or lease or buy Tess facilities, at a price that would satisfy Bankruptcy Court creditors.