North Rock long distance phone customers are no longer able to dial toll free 1-800 numbers as they have been ?reclaimed by the North American Numbering Plan? and customers will now be invoiced by an alternative carrier.

Although North Rock customers can still use these numbers, as of press time last night, no further information was available on how this change would affect the price of long distance calls and who would invoice them for the service.

In an e-mail to customers last weekend, North Rock said: ?...all North American 1-8xx numbers dialled from Bermuda are being passed to another long distance provider. ?Therefore any calls made to 1-8xx numbers will be charged and invoiced by another carrier even if you have selected North Rock.?

In their e-mail announcement, North Rock said: ?The Ministry of Telecommunications, Local Exchange and Long Distance Carriers are working together to determine a long term solution to address this 1-8xx issue.?

A North Rock spokesman yesterday referred inquiries to the Ministry of Telecommunications.

Director of Telecommunications, Bill Francis said yesterday that the Ministry was working an a press release to explain the situation as it was quite complicated. He expected it to be released within a week.

A spokesman from Cable and Wireless, one of Bermuda?s long distance providers, declined to comment, saying it would be best to wait for the Ministry of Telecommunications to explain the issue and how they intend to resolve it to ensure all Bermuda customers have access to these numbers.

In explaining why the numbers could no longer be used, North Rock said: ?... the following numbers have been reclaimed by the North American Numbering Plan and will no longer function as toll-free numbers in Bermuda: 1-880, 1-881, 1-882, and 1-883.?

The North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANPA) is the numbering plan for the Public Switched Telephone Network for Canada, the US and its territories and the Caribbean, including Bermuda.

Administration of NANPA numbering resources, referred to as code administration, includes assisting potential applicants by providing information about numbering resources, processing applications for resource assignments, assigning (or denying) numbering resources, advising regulators and the industry about potential exhaust of the resources and reclaiming resources no longer needed or improperly used.