For hundreds of Maine soldiers, phoning home from Iraq is suddenly a lot more expensive.

Two weeks ago, telecommunications giant AT&T shut down a 1-800 number that members of the Maine National Guard 133rd Engineer Battalion were using to call home.

It wasn’t free. Soldiers were paying for their calls. However, the rates were the same as if they were calling from the next state, not the other side of the world.

It was a loophole in the system, said Sgt. 1st Class Barbara Claudel, state family program coordinator for the Maine Army National Guard.

Now, it has been plugged. And families are angry.

Dozens of calls have been made to Claudel and her counterparts among the battalion’s varied companies. Wives and mothers have called AT&T, looking for an explanation for the change.

Many thought the loophole was merely a benefit for the troops, but Claudel said the phone company never intended soldiers to be able to call home at the same rate someone in Lewiston might call a cousin in North Conway.

Rates for the phone company’s prepaid calling cards can be as low as 2.99 cents per minute on a domestic call. “AT&T never advertised that deal for Iraq,” Claudel said.

The Sun Journal was unable Friday to reach an AT&T spokesman for comment.

AT&T’s pre-paid cards for military personnel, described as the cheapest on the market, charge 35 cents per minute for calls from Iraq to the United States. Just this week, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins announced that these cards would be easier to purchase or recharge online. The program, called “Help Our Troops Call Home,” allows civilians to buy the cards from military stores for use by a solider.

However people buy the cards, though, higher prices mean fewer calls for most families, further straining the lifeline between Maine and Iraq.

“It keeps us both going,” said Tammy Begin-LeBlanc, whose husband, Staff Sgt. Andre LeBlanc, is among the Lewiston-based soldiers in the Iraq city of Mosul.

“Each phone call is a confirmation that he’s OK,” said Begin-LeBlanc, who carries her cell phone with her all the time. When she sleeps, the mobile phone rests on her night stand beside the traditional phone.

These days, he calls once or twice a week, assuming his prepaid card is valid and he can get access to a phone.

However, according to the company’s Web site, AT&T has set up call centers in 14 U.S. bases with plans for three more. Meanwhile, many units have no access to phones at all.

Maine’s soldiers were warned that communication might be both difficult and expensive. The guard’s Family Assistance Center gave people pointers on communicating, such as learning the basics of e-mail and avoiding costly collect calls.

One National Guard family drew more than $1,000 in charges for a single month’s collect calls between Maine and Iraq, Claudel said.

When people ask her how they can help soldiers and their families, she now suggests they donate phone cards.

It’s something AT&T has done. By last December, the company had donated 195,000 prepaid phone cards to the USO for use by soldiers overseas. The cards were worth almost $3.5 million.

Yet, some families believe the company can do more.

Darlene St. Pierre, whose husband, Scott, is with the 133rd, has been struggling to pay the fees needed to keep her husband’s phone card valid.

With Scott in Iraq, she needed to quit work so she could stay at home with their son, who has autism.

“Who decides that this was a loophole that they shouldn’t be getting?” she asked Friday. “A big company like AT&T? You tell me they don’t have money.”

Both she and Scott’s mother have tried to talk with people at AT&T to get answers about the change, but they failed.

“I’ve done what I could,” Darlene St. Pierre said.

Scott St. Pierre, Andre LeBlanc, and the other 500 men and women in their battalion are expected to remain in Iraq for another year.

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