Area code switch meant delayed long distance bills

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- While thousands of Sprint long-distance customers were overbilled because of glitches in switching over to the new Twin Cities area codes, AT&T decided to hold off billing for its long-distance service in those areas until problems were worked out.

That means thousands of AT&T customers may soon be getting billed for long-distance calls made during the last several months, AT&T said Wednesday.

Chuck Ward, AT&T's Denver-based government affairs vice president for a 14-state region, said the company will begin catch-up billing at the end of June.

By not billing customers before the area code confusion was cleared up, AT&T avoided the problems that plagued Sprint, Ward said.

Sprint, which overbilled 18,000 residential customers for long-distance calls in March and April, said it has corrected customer bills and credited them for any overpayments.

AT&T customers will be given extra time to pay catch-up bills.

The billing problems began about a month after the western Twin Cities suburbs began an 11-month phase-in of the new area codes 763 and 952.