Since Tuesday at about 2PM Eastern Time, access to the AT&T "EasyReach" 
500 and 700 number services has not been working. (EasyReach 500 and 700 
numbers are allegedly "universal" type numbers in that they follow you 
wherever you happen to be but there are so many billing and access 
issues [not related to the instant problem] that I can see why very few 
people use the service.)

However, for the few of us who do :), if you try to dial 0-500-xxx-xxxx 
or from an AT&T line 0-700-xxx-xxxx (or 1010288-0-700-xxx-xxxx or dial 
(800) CALL-ATT and then at the prompt 500-xxx-xxxx or 700-xxx-xxxx), all 
you get is dead air, which goes on forever. The AT&T system does not hang 
up. 

You can, however, dial 1-500-xxx-xxxx and it works fine.

However, if you have given someone a "reverse the charges" code for your 
500 or 700 number, need to program your 500 or 700 number (which can 
only be done via 0+ access) or people want to call you on your 700# 
(which only has 0+ access), there is no way for them to get through. 

I called AT&T EasyReach customer service a number of times at (800) 
982-8480, and spoke to Ed and Kevin and then a host of other reps, and 
each time was told that they have a trouble ticket on the issue and that 
it would be fixed by this time today (which it isn't). 

Notably, this only seems to affect the NYC area: I've tried it from Area 
Codes 212, 718, 914, and a few 917 cellphone numbers on BAMS (I assume 
they connect ou of 718 or 212 somewhere), and it does not work, via ANY 
access method (ie, directly dialing 0+, using 1010288, or using (800) 
CALL-ATT, which *always* works), yet our office in Boston can dial it 
fine, and so can the CA office, and so can the reps in MO who first 
didin't believe there was a problem since they were able to access it 
fine from there. 

In any event, it is still down, and for the few people who still use 
those to contact me, it's a major problem. (You can tell that few people 
use the service if I am the only one who noticed it after 2 days!)

Regards,

Doug