Telephone Company Bills Late; Delay Due to Computer Failure

A computer failure at the Cambridge accounting office of New England Telephone is delaying the mailing of bills to all Harvard students on the Centrex system as well as other customers, a company official said Friday.

While the normal billing period ends on the twentieth of each month, the phone company did not mail last month's bills--covering the period from February 20 to March 20--until yesterday.

The delay occurred because a computer failure made it necessary for all student bills to be rerun, Lynn Zekis, acting business manager at New England Telephone's Cambridge office said Friday.

The Cambridge office has recently changed its operating system, Zekis said. The office combined two regional operating centers and reassigned several employees, she added.

Zekis said collection activity will be delayed for ten days, but the next billing period will continue on schedule. "This is a one-shot mistake," she added.