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

DATE: MONDAY, August 7, 1995                   TAG: 9508070068
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CALL OF CYBERSPACE GETS AN ANSWER: MORE PHONE LINES

Linda Burnett, an advertising executive, and her husband, an oil executive, both work from home. Because each uses a phone, a fax machine and a computer, they have five household telephone lines and any day now will be getting their sixth.

``When we first moved here, I called and said that I needed three lines, and the guy said they've never put three lines in a residence in Haymarket before,'' Burnett told The Washington Post. ``Each of us has our own business line, we have a house line, and we have dedicated lines to fax machines.''

The Burnetts are evidence of a growing suburban phenomenon. Houses are being wired for telephone service as never before, as more people work from home, as families buy computers that allow them to surf the Internet and as teen-agers demand their own telephone links.

Old homes are being rewired and new ones are fitted with networks that would rival those found in small office buildings. One company in Maryland that builds half-million dollar houses installs wiring to accommodate 12 lines.

``The home-buying public wants to take advantage of this,'' said Paul Lobien, operations manager for Mitchell, Best and Visnic Homes. ``We're not sure what services are going to be carried over the phone lines in the future.''

In 1994, the Bell Atlantic Corp. installed 200,000 phone lines in homes that already had one, according to Hanh Dang, a company official. This year, she estimates, the company will install 500,000 additional lines in its six-state mid-Atlantic region. ``The jump is quite dramatic,'' she said.

Fourteen percent of U.S. households had more than two phone lines in 1994, up from 11 percent in 1991, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Federal Communications Commission. Additional lines accounted for 30 percent of new lines last year.

Meanwhile, the region and the nation are running out of phone numbers because of the increase in lines. Virginia last month introduced a new area code - 540 - for areas west of Leesburg.

Matt Strickler, 25, of Crofton, Md., runs Fantasy Link Bulletin Board out of his home. His customers dial in with computers over five telephone lines to chat with one another, retrieve files and play games.

Skip Potter's Woodbridge home also is the main office for his rapidly growing Internet business. He started with 14 telephone lines, increased to 34 and now is wired for 100 lines.

In addition to the growth of home-based businesses, the exploding interest in online services has meant more families are plugging their computers into their phone lines. Many quickly discover the frustrations of having a computer share a line with the household phone.

William McCarthy, 45, a professor of Greek and Latin at Catholic University, already has three telephone lines, which he uses for his telephone, fax and computer.

He also has a 4-year-old daughter.

``By the time she becomes a teen-ager, it will be pretty normal to be hooked up, so the kids can use the Internet and talk at the same time,'' said McCarthy, who lives in Vienna. ``I don't see that it's impossible that she will want her own line.''

by CNB