MCI Charges AT&T; Piracy Is Continuing

MCI Telecommunications charged Thursday that AT&T; Communications, despite having received a reprimand from the U.S. Justice Department, continues to pirate away residential telephone customers in California who already picked MCI as their preferred long-distance carrier.

Eugene Eidenberg, president of MCI’s Pacific region, said the company filed with the California Public Utilities Commission 31 examples of what it termed “bogus orders� issued by AT&T; Communications since mid-November. MCI previously filed nine similar cases with the PUC.

MCI contends that some of the customers who signed up for the company’s new “Dial-1� service have continued to receive service bills and, more often, letters welcoming them as new AT&T; customers.

MCI has asked Pacific Bell to stop processing AT&T; change orders for MCI customers unless the orders are accompanied by a customer’s signed request, Eidenberg said.

Associated Press quoted an AT&T; spokesman estimating that as many as 117,000 misdirected letters may have been mailed out nationally. Rich Burk, who directs AT&T;’s marketing program in 12 Western states, said the company is preparing a state-by-state breakdown of the problem.

Problem Exists

Burk acknowledged the existence of a problem but insisted that it was inadvertent and resulted from “glitches� in the company’s mass-mailing program to persuade Californians to select AT&T; Communications as their primary long-distance carrier. He said the company is calling to apologize to each person who wrongly received confirmation letters.

As a result of the breakup of the old Bell System, former Bell local telephone companies--such as Pacific Bell--must provide comparable connections for all long-distance carriers.

Pacific Bell and other local phone companies are converting their switches to provide “equal access,� allowing most telephone customers to select a long-distance company other than AT&T; without dialing extra numbers to make the connection.

In a related development last week, California and San Mateo County officials reported that another long-distance carrier, Burlingame, Calif.-based GTE Sprint, agreed to pay $500,000 in civil penalties as the result of an investigation into customer complaints.

Sprint, which signed the judgment without admitting liability or wrongdoing, agreed not to enroll customers without authorization, to disconnect any customers who want their service ended within 30 days of receiving the order and to respond to complaints and billing inquiries within 30 days.