
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 29, 1994                   TAG: 9408020080
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

LINKING SHAWSVILLE

TO THE technologically disinclined, talk of electronic villages and information highways may seem like so much gibberish. But the future is now: Even the uninitiated are being directly affected by the demands of high tech.

As used by many, for example, the telephone is still old technology: You dial a number and talk to whichever human being (well, maybe a medium-tech answering machine) answers. But the least futuristic of Western Virginians will be affected as well as the highest tekkie on July 15, 1995, when the region's area-code area is to be split. Northern Virginia keeps the current 703; Western and Southwest Virginia get the new number, 540.

One reason for the need for a new area code is the increasing number of telephone lines used for high-tech computer-to-computer communicating through cyberspace. (Another is Northern Virginia's rapid population growth.)

Meanwhile, back at the Roanoke-region (Blacksburg-region? New Century Multiplex? RoaSalMont?) ranch, a desire by people on the periphery to link up with the Blacksburg Electronic Village is one impetus for Bell Atlantic's plan to put Shawsville, Salem and Blacksburg into a local-calling area. From Shawsville to Blacksburg isn't a long distance, but "conversations" via computer modem can take a long time - running up the bill even if the per-minute charge is small.

Did Bell Atlantic's new Roanoke Valley phone directories, distributed this spring, presage additional consolidation of local calling areas? New this year in the valley's book were white-page listings for Bedford and Blacksburg, though neither are - yet - a local call from Roanoke.Not everyone shares the urge to merge. A hearing Wednesday on the Salem-Shawsville-Blacksburg calling-area proposal drew plenty of support from residents of rural Shawsville. But it also drew opposition from some Blacksburgers who said the higher rates (up 74 cents per month, for residential phones) aren't worth it.

For them, of course, the Blacksburg Electronic Village already is accessible by local call, which lends their dissent an unattractive "I've got mine, Jack, so tough for you" aura. It's time to declare the information highway a two-way street.

by CNB