By reducing the number of delinquent customers, Sprint hopes to be left with a more stable pool of subscribers in the long run.

Every portfolio has a set of delinquent customers who do not make their payments on time.

Since then, officials of the utility said nearly 10,000 of the estimated 24,000 delinquent customers had made payment arrangements.

In many cases, delinquent customers were allowed by store personnel to make additional purchases on their accounts.

They said they would no longer cut electricity service but would campaign for salary increases through such other actions as refusing to stop service to delinquent customers.

And most said they had assigned members of their staff, or even hired new employees, to spend the day calling delinquent customers and pleading for payment.

Some were as simple as calling delinquent customers sooner to ask for payment.

For most phone companies and electric utilities, cutting off service to delinquent customers is a business reality.

Officials said the city had not moved to shut off service to any delinquent residential customers because its records were so unreliable that it could not prove that the unpaid bills were accurate.

Today, On Track is two-pronged: 1,500 delinquent low-income customers are selected each year.