White House to Unveil Plan to End Telecom Monopolies : Regulation: Administration will propose tearing down walls between cable TV and local and long-distance phone companies in effort to spur competition.

After weeks of political buildup, the Clinton Administration will unveil detailed proposals today for spurring competition in the telecommunications sector by eliminating restrictions that keep cable TV firms, local phone companies and long-distance carriers from invading each others’ markets.

Administration officials, working under the supervision of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, were still drafting key elements of the plan late Wednesday. But department sources said a central element of the telecommunications “white paper” will call for passage of legislation to let regional phone companies offer long-distance service if they can satisfy federal regulators that their entry will not harm competition in other markets.

“The plan is still being worked on, but in general, it details our proposals” for rewriting the rules of telephone competition, said Larry Williams, a spokesman for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Commerce Department unit that oversees telecommunications policy.

If adopted, the proposal would open up a potentially lucrative new source of revenue for local phone companies, such as Pacific Telesis, that currently are required to hand off long-distance calls to American Telephone & Telegraph, MCI and other long-distance providers.

In return for such freedom, however, many experts expect that the Administration will back measures that would expose telephone companies to more competition by encouraging cable companies to offer local phone service through their wired networks.

Several such proposals are pending in Congress. A bill introduced late last year by Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) would allow cable and telephone companies to enter each other’s markets, but would require them to open their networks to use by competitors. Another measure, by Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), would allow Bell companies to manufacture telephone equipment and to enter the lucrative long-distance market after five years.

In addition, Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.) is expected to introduce a measure to foster competition in the telecommunications market.

“There’s a lot of momentum out there to address this issue this year,” said a Capitol Hill aide involved with shaping telecommunications policy.

Three top Administration officials are scheduled to travel to Capitol Hill today to testify before the House telecommunications and finance subcommittee: Larry Irving, head of NTIA; Reed Hundt, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, and Anne Bingaman, assistant attorney general for antitrust. All were unavailable for comment Wednesday.

In prepared remarks submitted to the House subcommittee on economic and commercial law, Bingaman said it is time for federal regulators to begin supplanting the federal courts as chief overseers of the burgeoning telecommunications industry.

Federal judges, who in the early 1980s ordered the breakup of the old Bell Telephone monopoly and more recently eased restrictions that prevented Bell Atlantic Corp. from offering cable television service in its local markets, have been key forces in shaping telecommunications policy.

“The Administration believes the time has come to move telecommunications policy out of the courts and into the statute books so that Congress, representing the public, can establish the far-reaching framework for governing the telecommunications world of the future that the nation deserves,” Bingaman said.