Greensboro, NC - Sprint PCS experiences network glitch 06/27/00

By AMY JOYNER, Staff Writer

GREENSBORO --As a salesman who uses his mobile phone for business, it's not unusual for Scott McCarthy to pile up lots of cell phone calls every month.

But McCarthy's most recent Sprint PCS bill included charges for about 90 minutes worth of calls that didn't connect or were so distorted he couldn't hear the person on the other line.

"It's not just annoying," he said. "It's racking up my minutes."

Turns out, McCarthy's problem with his Sprint PCS telephone is not isolated.

A Sprint spokesman said the company is having trouble with its wireless network in the Triad and the Triangle.

"They are experiencing an echo problem that we are working on and hope to have resolved shortly," said spokesman Larry McDonnell. "I don't know how many customers it would be affecting."

The echoing affects call quality, McDonnell said, and is likely caused by a problem within Sprint's software or network of telephone switches. The intermittent problem has been occuring for several weeks, he said.

Technicians are still working to diagnose how widespread the problem is and trying to fix it, McDonnell said. They're now in a process of checking and retesting equipment, he said.

"Sometimes there's a little ghost in the machine," McDonnell said.

Until the problem is fixed, though, Sprint customers won't have to pay for botched calls. Instead, they can do what McCarthy did and call Sprint's customer service department and request a bill credit.

"We don't expect people to pay for any calls that are not going through or having problems," McDonnell said.

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-- Doris (reaper1@mindspring.com), June 27, 2000