VZ offers Naked DSL in Northeast

"In the change announced yesterday, Verizon said it would offer stand-alone D.S.L., but only to existing customers and only if they agreed to move their landline phone number to a wireless carrier or to a company that offered Internet-based telephone service, like Vonage or a cable company....Customers would not be allowed to transfer their telephone number to smaller phone companies that lease space on Verizon's network to send and receive calls. The stand-alone service, however, would not be available to new customers who want to sign up for Internet access alone." Gene Kimmelman, director of Consumers Union, "said that Verizon, by putting such stringent conditions on its D.S.L. offering, was making it difficult for customers to take advantage of the service. He said Verizon might be trying to appear consumer-friendly to regulators as it entered the regulatory process with its proposed merger of MCI, the long-distance company."