Callers Sprint To Make Foreign Calls On ‘Free Friday’ Response Forces Phone Company To Curtail Small-Business Program

A marketing program by Sprint Corp. allowing small businesses to make free long-distance calls on Fridays spun out of control when the company was startled by the number of overseas calls.

Sprint now has barred free calls overseas for new customers, and has banned calls from existing customers to nine countries: China, India, Pakistan, Israel, Ecuador, Bolivia, Thailand, Iran and Myanmar, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.

A spokesman at Sprint’s Kansas City headquarters referred questions about its Fridays Free program to Dallas offices, where the small-business marketing operation is based. Company officials there did not immediately comment to The Associated Press.

Many business customers were angry that Sprint signed them with the promise of an offer that has now been withdrawn.

Officials at Aval Communications Inc., which makes wireless equipment in Walnut Creek, Calif., said they turned down an attractive offer from AT&T because of the Sprint offer.

The company does business in one of the countries now banned by Sprint.

“It isn’t a professional thing to do,” said Kiomars Anvari, president of Aval.

Sprint ran into trouble with the Fridays Free program earlier, when it allowed many residential customers to sign up even though it was targeted at small businesses. Some customers have complained that their service has been cut off.

After seeing the large volume of calls placed, Sprint sent Mailgrams to many customers demanding proof of their small business status.

To placate the business customers, Sprint plans to offer a 25 percent discount for the next year on calls to the banned countries.