More customers, new laws create challenges for Optel. (Optel Communications Inc.)

WEST DALLAS - Optel Communications Inc. is on the verge of a tricky threshold.

Optel, one of the largest independent cable-TV and telephone carriers in the United States, has seen its subscriber base mushroom over the last year. The company has new freedom to diversify services thanks to federal telecommunications reform, and with that many competitive challenges.

Optel, which moved to Dallas from Los Angeles more than a year ago, specializes in providing cable and phone services primarily to multifamily housing. Since Canadian cable giant Videotron took control of Optel in December 1994:

* The customer base has grown from about 1,000 to more than 108,000. …