Could well have been a competitor (as others have suggested), or perhaps a severely malfunctioning phone. (It's not unheard of; there was a series of 911 hangup calls around where I used to work that was eventually traced to a vending machine modem).

Why wasn't it in the news? Well, because nobody ever told them. It's not like you'd issue a press release.

And why were they running such a cheap operation? Because they were stupid and greedy.

(Not saying the story is 100% true, but it's certainly plausible)