30,000 BILLED BY FTC : LONG-DISTANCE FEE MAY BE IMPROPER.

Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Daily News Staff Writer

More than 30,000 San Fernando Valley-area residents and businesses may have been improperly billed for long-distance telephone service by a Dallas company, officials said Thursday.

Bills containing an $8.99 monthly service charge from FTC Long Distance were sent to 30,634 customers of GTE California starting last summer, said phone company spokesman Larry Cox.

``We're concerned that the number is so big,'' Cox said. ``We're hopeful that this can be brought to some kind of resolution. All the affected customers will be made whole.''

A state probe into the billing problems - customers charged for long-distance service they did not order - should be completed this month and the results given to the California Public Utilities Commission, said Mark Clairmont of the agency's special investigations unit.

Commissioners could suspend or revoke FTC's certificate to do business in California, he said.

Clairmont interviewed FTC President Manuel Zepeda late last month but declined to discuss specifics of the conversation until the investigation is complete.

``He voluntarily came out for the interview and presented his side of the story,'' Clairmont said.

State officials began their investigation after the Daily News reported in September that scores of local GTE customers were complaining about improper billing by FTC.

In virtually all cases, the bills included the service charge but no fees for long-distance calls made via FTC's network.

Zepeda could not be reached for comment Thursday, and calls to his Dallas office were picked up by an answering machine.

Zepeda's San Francisco attorney, Martin Mattes, declined to discuss specifics of the case until authorized to do so by his client.

``I can tell you this much: We are presently working with the California PUC staff and cooperating with their investigation,'' Mattes said. ``We have provided credits to any person who has been improperly charged and has requested a credit.''

Federal regulations require big local phone companies like GTE to include in their bills long-distance charges from resellers like FTC. Resellers submit their records to billing clearinghouses, which in turn pass the information on to the local carriers.

The Dallas company initially used the billing services of Van Nuys-based OAN. But OAN in October terminated its relationship with FTC after receiving numerous customer complaints about the charge. FTC subsequently switched to a billing service called USBI, based in San Antonio.

USBI executives were traveling and could not be reached for comment. However, the company previously said it would issue credits for billing errors.