Long Distance

When Kelley and Brendan James said their marriage vows last June, they could have promised to love, honor and cherish "till death do us part, and even if a great job opportunity comes along that has us living in different cities." This April the two will join the growing number of dual-career couples who are married but separated most of the time by their jobs. Demographers report that there are over a million of them in the United States, an estimate that doesn't include people in long-term relationships who aren't married.

MCI Inc. confirmed yesterday that it's shutting down its Hunt Valley telemarketing center, a move that will result in 300 lost jobs by the end of September and bring down the curtain on a facility that just five years ago employed 1,200 people. Employees were informed Friday about the job cuts, which take effect Sept. 30, MCI spokeswoman Brittany Feinson said. Some executive-level employees will be transferred to MCI operations in Towson, where the company employs about 100 people, but other employees will be terminated, the nation's No. 2 long-distance provider confirmed.

Where choice and competition exist in a marketplace, bargains abound. And few industries are as fiercely competitive as long-distance phone service. That competition has led to significantly lower rates and new ways of talking across the miles in recent years. That will remain true despite recently announced mergers involving long-distance carriers AT&T Corp. and MCI Inc. But consumers are being sucked in by heavily promoted phone plans that seem to be bargains but can be more expensive.

When legislators created the Telecommunications Act of 1996, they viewed the world of local vs. long-distance communications as all there was: a pair of different animals that needed to be taught how to play well together. They didn't see that technology would come along - as it so often does - to make all their efforts moot. Cable and wireless companies sneaked into the market while traditional land-line phone companies, cousins by comparison, were busy arguing over sharing their equipment, as the act required.

Verizon Communications Inc. said yesterday that it will buy MCI Inc. for roughly $6.7 billion, mating the nation's largest local telephone company and No. 2 long-distance provider in a deal demonstrating the depth of change in what was once a staid, regulated industry. Some consumer advocates said the deal could lead to higher prices and fewer competitive options for basic phone services as the old "Ma Bell" regional phone companies reassemble their monopolistic parts. Others in the industry said it will let the top companies offer convenient multiservice packages that buyers of technology services have been demanding for a decade.

Add this to the reasons to take up jogging: It might be what separates us from the apes. Scientists at Harvard and the University of Utah say that much of our anatomy was shaped 2 million years ago when the earliest humans developed the bones, ligaments and joints necessary for long-distance running. That, in turn, gave humans a chance to hunt animals that were much faster in a sprint - but couldn't stay ahead in the long haul. Adaptations for running A close look at our skeletons - and the spring-like tendons in our legs and our relatively big buttocks (sorry, but it's true)

Fallout from the breakup of the nation's phone monopoly a generation ago was fully evident yesterday: AT&T Corp., the phone giant that Alexander Graham Bell founded, announced it is no longer seeking new residential long-distance customers. In another development, local phone giant Verizon Corp. said it is launching phone service via the Internet in about half the country, including Maryland. While AT&T Corp. has been leaving some phone segments, its retreat from consumer long-distance to concentrate on business customers was viewed as significant, and a potent symbol of how the phone industry has been turned upside down.

Barry Bonds could have gazed at the B&O warehouse yesterday and imagined the possibilities, if only his line of vision weren't blocked by all the reporters and television cameras packed around him inside the San Francisco Giants' dugout at Camden Yards. He knew it was there, practically daring him to take aim. No player has hit it except for batting practice and the home run contest that preceded the 1993 All-Star Game. Who is more qualified to break a window or chip a few bricks? "I don't really care about the warehouse.

One of the best ways to improve your finances is to stop overpaying for regular expenditures. And chances are, you're overpaying for long-distance phone service. That's especially true if you've gone years without comparing offerings. Call quality is mostly the same no matter which long-distance company you choose, so it makes sense to shop by price. And because consumers have more choices than ever, you can tailor your long-distance service to fit your calling habits. "People are spending too much," said John Breyault, spokesman for the Telecommunications Research & Action Center, a consumer advocacy group based in Washington.

David J. Coder, an avid long-distance bicyclist, died of a heart attack Saturday while riding his favorite blue-and-red Trek 5200 road bike in Anne Arundel County. The Catonsville resident was 48. "He was at mile 51 of a 62-mile bike ride when he had the heart attack near Linthicum. He died instantly," said his wife of five years, the former Margaret F. Draper. "Doug always said he wanted to die on his bike." Mr. Coder was born in Cleveland and raised in Timonium. He was a 1973 graduate of Dulaney High School and attended what is now Towson University.