Bell Atlantic to Offer Go-Anywhere Number for Local Internet Access.(Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News)

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, March, 2000 by Howe, Peter J.

Mar. 27--On-the-go customers of dial-up Internet access providers who constantly need to find a local number to get on the Net could soon have to remember just one number.

Bell Atlantic is now offering for ISPs so-called "500" numbers that subscribers could call anywhere in Bell Atlantic's Maine-to-Virginia service territory and be hooked up to the closest dial-up line to get on the Net.

This could be one of the first big uses of 500 area code numbers, which were created more than five years ago to support "follow-me" services -- like a single number that rings to whatever phone a subscriber has chosen to use -- but have been slow to take off.

ISPs would get a number in one of two groups, either 500-699-XXXX or 500-555-XXXX. When subscribers...

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