ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 8, 1994                   TAG: 9407110190
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Washington Post
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

AT&T READIES FOREVER NUMBER

A diamond is forever, and starting next week, your telephone number can be, too. Tuesday, AT&T will start offering lifetime phone numbers. It's an early take on the ``one number, anytime, anywhere'' world envisioned by the industry.

MCI Communications Corp. plans to unveil a similar offering at some point but was not ready to discuss anything.

The phone numbers will employ a new area code, 500, which the Federal Communications Commission plans to authorize next week. The 500 number's holder could program the system to ring a call in as many as three locations in sequence - at an office, then a cellular phone, then a home, for instance. A traveler could substitute a hotel or pager number. The service would start in late September.

|-Washington Post 


 by CNB