GTE to Install Lines That Carry Video : Telecommunications: Company calls effort its most aggressive yet toward an ‘information highway.’

GTE Telephone, California’s second-biggest phone company, said Tuesday that it will spend $80 million over the next three years to upgrade its network to carry video services in 16 Southern California communities.

The program is part of a three-year, $240-million nationwide effort that will bring fiber-optic cables--capable of carrying the next generation of video information and entertainment--to GTE customers in 12 states.

Initially, the cables will be laid in large rings throughout the central business districts of these communities and will be available for use by commercial customers. Residential phone traffic may be routed over the new networks, but those consumers will not be able to receive video signals, high-speed data transmission or other sophisticated new services for at least a few more years, the company said.

GTE said the fiber rings represent its most aggressive effort yet to build a so-called information highway in the communities it serves in California.

Areas scheduled for the new network include the San Gabriel Valley, the Walnut Valley, West Los Angeles, Long Beach, South Bay areas of Los Angeles County, and Seal Beach, Huntington Beach and Westminster in Orange County.

The first of GTE’s rings is already in service in the Ontario Airport area.

Equipment for the project is coming from American Telephone & Telegraph and Northern Telecom.