U S West to Eliminate 9,000 Jobs : Communications: Baby Bell’s efforts to streamline are called necessary to remain competitive in the face of a revolution in technology.

Reacting to competitive pressures wrought by the telecommunications revolution, U S West said Friday that it will cut 9,000 jobs during the next three years and take charges against earnings totaling $3.8 billion as the Baby Bell prepares to face new rivals in local phone service.

The Denver-based company said it will post a loss for the third quarter as a result of the steps, which will eliminate 18% of its work force in telephone operations and speed depreciation of its phone equipment. U S West earned $475.2 million on revenue of $5.1 billion during the first half of the year.

U S West shares soared $2.125 to a record $48.50 on the New York Stock Exchange.

The moves underscore the financial pressures on local phone companies as a new information order forges the marriage of telephone, video and computer technologies.

The local phone business--which has been a regulated monopoly for decades--is now facing competition from a host of new entrants.

On Friday, for instance, the California Public Utilities Commission cleared the way for long-distance and other carriers to begin competing with Pacific Bell and GTE California in providing long-distance service within the state. (See story, A1.) Cellular phone technology, meanwhile, is speeding up the time frame in which some of the local Bell companies’ technology becomes obsolete.

As U S West’s cutbacks underscore, the competition is forcing local phone companies to streamline.

“While (these actions) have a short-term effect on company earnings, they will help assure our long-term financial health in an increasingly competitive world,” Chairman Richard McCormick said in a statement.

U S West said it plans a $610-million special charge in the third quarter for the job cuts and is taking a $3.2-billion charge to speed up equipment depreciation. The company will depreciate copper wire over 15 years instead of 27 and digital switches over 10 years instead of 18. Those are two of its chief assets.

At the phone companies’ urging, the Federal Communications Commission next week is set to consider new rules to simplify the depreciation process for telephone companies and modify accounting requirements for transactions between carriers and their non-regulated affiliates.

Depreciation is “the single largest cost component” of a telephone company’s balance sheet, and the firms are very concerned about the issue, said J. Bradford Ramsay, deputy assistant general counsel of the National Assn. of Regulatory Commissioners.

The changes at U S West will not affect the rates that the phone company charges its customers, and they will not require regulatory approval.

Besides restructuring themselves, local phone companies are forging ties with cable and computer firms to prepare for new ways to deliver voice and data communications. With its $2.5-billion investment last May in the cable operations of Time Warner Inc., U S West pulled off one of the most aggressive transactions.

It plans to be equally aggressive in downsizing.

The company, which now employs 50,650 people in its telephone business, has already cut about 5,000 jobs. It hopes to cut 9,000 more by the end of 1996. U S West employs about 10,000 additional workers in other operations and serves 25 million customers from Washington east to Minnesota and south to Arizona.