The Associated Press' David Twiddy reports that the New York State Consumer Protection Board is asking Sprint Nextel to pay $200 each to about 1,000 customers whose contracts it terminated for calling customer service too often.

"Sprint Nextel, the nation's third-largest wireless provider with 53 million customers, mailed out letters June 29 telling the customers that their frequent calling to customer service led the company to believe they would be better off with another carrier," Twiddy writes. "The company said an internal review over the past year identified customers who called an average of 40 to 50 times a month with questions about billing and other terms of their service. They said the repeated calls were interfering with the company's ability to serve other customers."

"These former Sprint customers will have to purchase new phones and incur other expenses and inconveniences if they want to continue receiving wireless service," says Mindy Bockstein, executive director of the Consumer Protection Board. "Sprint Nextel should do more to improve the quality of its customer service, and this is a good place to start."

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