Cellular number phone phone

A new follow-me service modeled after live receptionist-caller interactions, will allow subscribers to keep their original cellular phone number. Comcast Cellular Communications Inc. subscribers now can sign up for services that can reach them anywhere, using their existing cellular numbers. The Personal Assistant allows callers to reach a customer's home, office, pager or fax machine.

Personal Assistant was designed by Telecommunications Premium Services Inc., based in Iselin, N.J. The service acts the same as other follow-me services in that it screens and routes calls.

Comcast will offer the service on a trial basis to 250 customers in Pennsylvania, Delaware and southern New Jersey. The product will be available to all Comcast subscribers by early 1996.

"It is a very important step for us, and it signals a new generation of cellular service that will be far more user-friendly, giving people the ability to manage their incoming and outgoing calls with the convenience of a single number service," said Donald Harris, president of Comcast.

While using the system's voice mail, customers can return calls by pressing a button and later resume retrieving messages. Users can be notified of fax and voice messages by pager. Subscribers can send non-subscribers messages too.

...Another Service Will Bill Callers Rather Than Cellular Customers

U S West Cellular began offering the option to bill callers rather than the cellular phone receiver last week. Numbers with this service, Caller Pays, will be denoted by a prefix. Callers will be billed 45 cents per minute plus any toll charges if the call is long distance. Subscribers receive this service only when they are in their home region. The service will save companies that use several cellular phones from paying double airtime charges. The service costs $3.95 per month, and phones must be reprogrammed with the new number.