So ... you want to be an ISP? (Internet service provider)

Sure, RBOCs must wade through a mire of technical issues to join the Interenet service provider fray, but they face even tougher customer service challenges.

It was bound to happen. As soon as the long distance carriers opened up Internet services to a sea of initial subscribers, the RBOCs quickly came rumbling up from behind.

Since AT&T rolled out its Worldnet service, the not-so-baby Bells started touting their own soon-to-come entries into the ISP game. To RBOCs, the Internet represents a chance to leverage their large networks, offering their equally large customer territories access to the much-hyped network.

"They have a really good opportunity to do it right," says to Bruce Baikie, marketing manager of Mountain View, Calif.-based Sun Microsystems (www.sun.-com) Inc.'s Internet solutions for the telecommunications and cable industry.

STARTING THINGS OFF

The largest and …