Because of confusion that arises between roommates sharing a phone line, students who have not been delivered a monthly bill often don't notice until their phone service has been disconnected.

"I assumed that the February bill had been taken care of," Malhotra said. "Instead, it never arrived. Then our phone was cut off, and we weren't even told."

While students whose phones were disconnected say they received no advance warning, Kinchla said that notices are typically sent two weeks in advance of a line being cut.

"The [notice] tells them what their balance is, how many days late their payment is," Kinchla said. "It arrives two weeks in advance."

But Zachary R. Mider '01 says his room also never received notice that its line was being disconnected.

"No one could remember if we'd paid our February bill or not; it seemed like [we had]," said Mider, who is also a Crimson editor. "It turned out that we hadn't gotten bills for February or March. Then they cut our line with no warning."

Kinchla said that the HSTO has experienced bill delivery problems in the past.