CELLULAR CHARGES BAFFLE CUSTOMERS

Cell tower confusion has led to shocking bills for some Verizon Wireless cellular phone users in the Cape Girardeau area.

One user counted 133 calls from Carbondale, Ill., on a recent bill without having been there. Another user said he got a call from outside of the area and paid a roaming charge for receiving it.

Verizon officials say calls are mistakenly being routed through towers in Southern Illinois, and they encourage customers with discrepancies on their bills to call the company's billing department for a new statement. They also may need phone adjustments or even different phones.

"We recently launched service in Southern Illinois after purchasing Cellular One," said Cheryl Bini, a spokesperson from Verizon Wireless' St. Louis office. "And yes, some calls from the Cape Girardeau area could be using nearby towers in Southern Illinois. But we can determine which calls used the wrong tower."

Calls through the Southern Illinois tower register as Carbondale.

Bini said users can set their phones to "home only" to avoid making or receiving any roaming calls. However, a tower occasionally may override the home-only setting, and the company will make adjustment on the bill in those cases, said Bini.

Verizon, which entered the Southeast Missouri market last October and Southern Illinois in January, has five locations in the Cape Girardeau County area.

Verizon Communications Inc., formed by the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE, is the largest provider of wireless communications in the United States.