has revealed it is to introduce a new long distance service next week.

The company's sales and marketing manager Vicki Coehlo said the company would run a series of teaser ads before launching the service, called 20-20-321, during the middle of next week. But she refused to release further details on the service, which will compete with Logic Communication's 44-cents-a-minute LogicPhone.

In August, the Ministry of Telecommunications permitted NorthRock and Logic to provide long distance service after a lengthy legal battle with the incumbent providers, Cable & Wireless and TeleBermuda International, who claimed the ISPs were essentially piggy-backing their infrastructure.

But scheduling problems seem to have afflicted NorthRock, which first said it would introduce long distance service by the end of last summer. Federal Communications Commission approval of equipment has also held up the implementation of NorthRock's residential wireless Internet service, which is now scheduled for introduction this spring, a year after its originally-anticipated launch. The company will launch commercial wireless service on January 28 and is currently providing beta service to 30 customers in Hamilton.