Sprint Corp. has stopped actively marketing a number of residential local and long-distance calling plans in 36 states and the District of Columbia known as Sprint Complete Sense, according to company representatives.

The company listed 336,000 Sprint Complete Sense customers at the end of the first quarter, the most recent figure disclosed, according to spokesman Travis Sowders.

Sowders says Sprint never launched a mass marketing campaign to promote the calling plans and primarily sold the packages to existing customers. Sprint will continue to support existing customers, he says, and provide Sprint Complete Sense to people who request it. The decision to stop marketing the calling plans was made in recent weeks, Sowders says.

Sprint introduced the calling plans last year after the FCC released rules that helped foster local-phone competition by requiring BellSouth Corp., Qwest Communications International Inc., SBC Communications Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. to rent their networks to competitors such as AT&T Corp. and Sprint at government-set rates. Those rules have expired, and numerous telecommunications companies anticipate a significant spike in the wholesale phone rates beginning next year.

Attributing its decision to regulatory developments, AT&T last week announced plans to stop competing for local and long-distance phone customers in the traditional residential market. Analysts expect other phone companies, including possibly MCI, to scale back their residential services as a result of the regulatory developments. MCI was not immediately available for comment.

Derek Gietzen, co-founder, president and CEO of privately held Vycera Communications, a phone company targeting the Hispanic market in California and Texas, says he has received calls from three telecommunications providers expressing an interest in selling their residential customer bases. He says one company has 2,000 customers.

“They just didn’t have the size to really deal with what is going on,” Gietzen says, referring to changes in the federal rules.