You are going to need a telephone where the agency can reach you. There are a lot of message services and of course cell phones. Although I don't have a cell at the moment, if the price is okay with you then it may be better because finding a working telephone in Manhattan is almost as hard as finding a rest room that you would actually consider using (Marriott Hotel @ 46th).

Personally, I use a message service with a (212) area code that sends a message to my smartbeep beeper whenever a message comes in. With this arrangement, if any messages comes in and I miss the beep (usually because I am either in the subway or I don't hear or feel the beeper because of the noise on the street), the message is saved and can be played back on the message service. I have a habit of checking my messages whenever I come out of the subway now.

I think that there is a difference between (212) numbers and other area codes since it is much quicker and easier for some one to call a (212) number if they are in (212) area code. It is also much better if you are home and can answer the telephone, but I'm never home.

When you get a "can you work NOW" call from an agency, they will ask you "how soon can you get there". If you say a couple of hours they will likely call someone else. Years ago when lived in Queens, I would take the train into Manhattan every morning and wait around to see if some agency would call (if I didn't already have an assignment), I was registerd with so many agencies then that I always got at least one call from someone. Some temp agencies used to pay temps to come in and wait in their offices to see if work would come in in the moring.