San Francisco-based 555-1212.com, an ASP that looks up telephone numbers, Wednesday says it is changing its business model to include subscription services for small to medium businesses.

The new paid subscription service will give subscribers access to exclusive directory assistance databases. Subscriptions start at $9.95 per month. The service is expected to remain free for usage of up to 30 lookups a month.

The company says it switched to a subscription service after extensive customer polling found users would subscribe to premium services.

"Last fall we began offering a paid content model to our enterprise customers who saw value in having the most accurate data and wanted it quickly," says Pamela Roussos, CEO for 555-1212.com. "Our small- to mid-sized customers told us they needed this service to meet their business needs. The quality and exclusivity of our content makes our subscription program a cost-effective solution for small- to mid-sized businesses."

Roussos says the 555-1212.com databases contain over 120 million residential, business and toll-free listings from the United States from telephone companies that are not available on other online directory sites.

The name of the company comes from the telephone number for general directory assistance and competes with other phone lookup models like 411.com, AnyWho and Switchboard.

The success of Internet-based directory assistance is based on increased charges and reduced listings available by local phone companies, who started charging for the service in the late 80s.

"It's a sea of change away from yesterday's 'everything free' model," says Michael Tschong, editor of ICONOCAST, a weekly e-marketing newsletter.

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