TELEPHONE DIRECTORIES TO GO ONLINE.

Byline: Andrew Ross Sorkin The New York Times

For some users of the World Wide Web, calling telephone directory assistance at 411 or 555-1212 may become a thing of the past if two companies' new partnership catches on.

Who Where Inc., a provider of online e-mail address directories and other information services, and Directory Net, which sells computerized telephone directories to big corporations, announced earlier this month a fee-based Web service intended to give small businesses and individuals computer access to the same telephone directory data bases that the nation's regional Bell companies use to process local 411 calls.

The service, called Who Where Connect Now, is priced to be competitive with local 411 calls, and lower than long-distance directory inquiries, company officials said. The monthly fee is $9.90 for the first 22 requests and 45 cents for each additional request during that month. The site's address is http://wwcn.whowhere.com.

The service will allow users to find a phone number by typing in a person's or business' name and the city - or even just the state. It will also allow a search based on simply typing in a telephone number to disclose the name and address linked to that number.

Directory Net currently offers a similar service for large businesses and organizations that may need to find hundreds of phone numbers an hour, but it requires the use of Directory Net's own proprietary software and can cost thousands of dollars a month.