New fraud charges leveled at LV phone company

Friday, May 25, 2001 | 11:15 a.m.

NOS Communications Inc. of Las Vegas and two subsidiaries were charged by the Wisconsin Department of Justice Wednesday with deceiving Wisconsin customers about the cost of their long-distance telephone service.

The Business Journal of Milwaukee reported that NOS, based at 4380 Boulder Highway, and its subsidiaries, Affinity Networks Inc. of Los Angeles and NOSVA L.P. of Las Vegas, are accused of billing customers on the basis of a measurement the companies called the "total call unit" rather than charging for long-distance service by the minute.

The defendants allegedly misled Wisconsin customers into believing that the number of call units for which they are being billed is equal to the number of minutes of long-distance service they use. But customers are instead charged for up to two-and-a-half call units per minute, according to the complaint filed in Dane County Circuit Court.

NOS has about 120,000 customers throughout 48 U.S. states and employs a staff of about 1,500. Founded in 1989, NOS is a reseller of MCI Worldcom telecommunication services.

Raymond Perea, an NOS attorney, today declined comment on the charges in the Wisconsin Justice Department suit.

The suit also said Affinity Network has been illegally operating in Wisconsin since its certification as a telecommunications provider was revoked by Wisconsin's Public Service Commission in February.

Danny Adams, an NOS attorney, had earlier said the company plans to appeal the Public Service Commission's action, claiming NOS sent the registration information accidentally to the Secretary of State's Office instead of the Public Service Commission.

The defendants operated under several names in Wisconsin, including QuantumLink Communications, HorizonOne Communications, International Plus, 011 Communications, INETBA and iVantage network Solutions, the suit said.

The Wisconsin action is the second filed by regulators this year against NOS.

Federal regulators proposed fining NOS and Affinity a total of $1 million in April, charging the companies' telemarketers deceived several consumers about their phone bills.

The Federal Communications Commission said it received 900 complaints since 1997 about the companies, saying they didn't make clear that some advertised rates were valid for two months only and after that the rates were raised on a complex formula, based on cents per "total call unit."

But NOS's Adams disagreed. He said the scripts for telemarketers made it clear that the cents-per-minute rate was a promotional rate.