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For the past two months, Sprint customers have wondered why their information no longer shows up on some caller ID boxes.
What nobody has been able to tell them is that SBC Southwestern Bell has stopped recognizing Sprint caller information because of stalled negotiations between the telecommunications companies.
That means Sprint users are. showing up as "out of area" or "unknown name" or "unavailable" on SBC caller ID boxes.
A three-year contract between the two sides expired Sept 1. It had allowed Sprint access to the names and numbers of Southwestern Bell and SBC Pacific Bell customers in return for the names and numbers of Sprint's wireless and standard telephone users.
A Sprint executive expressed frustration with SBC's unwillingness to put Sprint numbers on its caller ID service, even without a contract in place, as Sprint is doing.
"They're taking a gamble that there won't be a public outcry," said Bill Cheek, president of Sprint's wholesale markets group. "Our customers, quite frankly, are being deprived."
Through the reciprocal agreement, each company paid a fixed...