A home office communication system (10) has a control and display system (16). A modem (12) is controlled by the control and display system (16) and connected to a telephone line (14). A multiplexer (18) is connected to the modem (12) and multiplexes a plurality of outgoing data streams in a predefined format and demultiplexes an incoming data stream from the modem (12). A speech encoding system (20) generates a plurality of speech packets to form one of the plurality of outgoing data streams. A telephone line control system (22) venerates a plurality of control packets forming one of the plurality of outgoing data streams and an information channel (24) forms one of the plurality of outgoing data streams.