A new telephone company interested only in servicing Long Islanders has opened here in Roslyn. The Long Island Telephone Company has been at its location at Three Expressway Plaza by the Roslyn train station for only a week now.

When a new business comes to Roslyn, the proprietors usually mention the area's upscale clientele, plus the village's rural atmosphere, the latter being highly unusual for the North Shore.

In addition to these qualities, executives with this new telephone company also like Roslyn's accessible location. According to both Vice President and General Manager Earl Sullivan and Executive Vice President Robert Tsarnas, the Roslyn location provides a "good commercial base." In addition, it is accessible to major roads and airports, making it convenient for prospective clients, vendors and suppliers. Also, the company's executives live in the area. Mr. Sullivan resides in Brookville, while Charles M. Piluso, the company's founder and president, lives in Manhasset.

In short, the Long Island Telephone Company hopes to be a "Long Island company run by Long Islanders." According to Mr. Sullivan, it will provide a "full array" of telephone services, including local and long distance calls, internet and high speed data exclusively for residents and businesses in Nassau and Suffolk county.

By focusing all of its efforts on Long Islanders, the company contends it can offer telephone services for 10 percent less than Bell Atlantic (formerly NYNEX) rates.

Mr. Sullivan said his new company is not "incumbered" by a "100-year-old copper network." Rather, it is starting from scratch with the latest technology, especially a fiber optic network which makes Long Island Telephone competitive on a cost basis.

"Too often, Long Islanders pay for being on the fringe of New York City," Mr. Tsarnas said. "Long Island is a bedroom community with its own identity, its own pulse." Furthermore, by "creating competition," the company will "ensure that rates will decrease, customer service will improve and the quality of the functions consumers receive will increase."

A company founded and managed by Long Islanders, Mr. Tsarnas added, is likely to be more sensitive to the people who live there. Both men give credit to the 1996 Telecommuncations Act passed by the US Congress which dramatically deregulated the industry for making it easy to start new businesses.

However, both men also contend they are not businessmen interested only in "big buck big businesses." Instead, they are interested in "serving all of Long Island," both the consumer and the small businessman in addition to large corporations.

"We are not opportunists," Mr. Tsarnas said. "We want to be Long Island's local telephone company." To underscore the company's commitment to the Island, they will be donating a percentage of every dollar they bill and collect to local charities.

Mr. Tsarnas said that not only would new technology result in lower prices, the company also chose to make prices lower. "We want to give Long Islanders a break," he said.

Both men are bullish on the Island's future regarding such technology-based jobs. They see the Island, with its educated work force as "poised to take a major leap" in technology development.

In the meantime, the company plans to work with local colleges and universities, especially Hofstra and Stony Brook to find interns and to recruit future employees.