• You are right about the code that uses Identity column. I missed that Identity column was created in a stored procedure. I meant identity that is persisted in original table.

    W/o a persisted column like identity I was thinking along:

    --@lastRetrieved varchar(50) - last lastName we have retrieved in previous call

    select top 25 * from contacts

    where lastName > @lastRetrieved

    order by lastName

    PS: Not as easy as this one, extremely rough thinking loud.