New Push for Info Superhighway : Telecom: The Clinton Administration is redoubling its efforts to promote the technology, but it faces several obstacles.

Stung by the defeat of its telecommunications agenda in Congress this fall and facing industry criticism that it isn’t doing enough to promote the technology, the Clinton Administration is intensifying its efforts to put the information superhighway back on the political map.

Vice President Al Gore has recently been courting Republican congressional leaders in hopes of working with them on telecommunications reform legislation next year.

Meanwhile, Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown has invited the vice president, Justice Department antitrust chief Anne Bingaman and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt to a telecommunications summit next month. The group will plot strategy for a landmark international conference set for February in Brussels, where government officials and industry leaders aim to set an ambitious global telecommunications agenda.

“There has not been any change in emphasis, but there may be a change in the way we express our message,” said Greg Simon, the vice president’s chief domestic policy adviser. In working to bring the world into the Information Age, Simon added, “people shouldn’t just focus on legislation. This is not just about (passing) a bill in Congress.”

The flurry of activity comes in the wake of the Republican takeover of Congress and a recent admonition by an administration advisory panel that the White House “must place a much higher priority on finding ways to communicate effectively the benefits of the (information highway) to the average American.”

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Since taking office two years ago, Gore and President Clinton have campaigned intensely for government and industry to build an information superhighway that would provide ordinary citizens with electronic access to data held by government, industry and schools. Gore has given dozens of speeches throughout the United States and abroad explaining the benefits of such links, and Clinton last summer persuaded world leaders to hold the first-ever global telecommunications policy meeting, in February.

But in recent months, issues such as health care, taxes and crime have eclipsed the information highway as political priorities. And in the wake of several failed industry mega-mergers, companies have been hesitant about committing billions of dollars to rewire the nation without a clearer indication that consumers want fancy Information Age services.

The National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council, in its Dec. 6 letter to Brown, credited the administration with “noteworthy progress” in making telecommunications modernization a national goal. But the panel of educators and technology executives, including MCI Chairman Bert C. Roberts and Silicon Graphic Chairman Ed McCracken, said the administration could do more.

It urged the White House to “work closely with Congress to achieve the objectives of increased competition, diversity of ownership, the establishment of regulatory parity, open access and continued deployment of an advanced infrastructure.”

But that could now prove even more difficult than it was earlier this year, when Capitol Hill lawmakers produced telecommunications bills that sailed through the House and a key Senate subcommittee, only to run aground when Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.) tabled the Senate measure amid bickering between long-distance carriers and the regional Bell phone companies. The two factions remain at odds over the ground rules for the Baby Bells’ entry into the lucrative long-distance phone business.

And other obstacles also loom on Capitol Hill, where some Republican lawmakers were reportedly irked that they were not informed early on about Brown’s Jan. 9 telecommunications summit.

Gore’s adviser Simon said that “all of the people who are (committee) chairs and ranking leaders were invited to” the summit, and added that “we have not heard any partisan reaction to this meeting.”

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Still, Republicans are clearly pressing to gain greater influence over telecommunications policy.

The powerful and outspoken House Speaker-to-be Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who calls himself “an information futurist,” has his own strong ideas about information technology. His party’s “Contract With America,” for example, advocates greater public access to Congress by making pending legislation electronically available through computer on-line services. Gingrich has indicated that he wants to harness computer on-line services into a sort of electronic town hall.

But the Republicans are not of one mind on telecommunications issues, which have traditionally revolved around conflicting industry interests rather than partisan issues.

Some key Senate leaders, such as incoming Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), have indicated that they support less stringent regulation of the Baby Bells’ entry into long-distance phone service. That could put him at odds with incoming House Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Thomas J. Bliley Jr. (R-Va.), whose Richmond-area congressional district is home to a major AT&T; plant.

“This is very much a divided place,” said one Congressional aide.

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An Internet Guide

* A seven-part series by Newsday computing columnist Joshua Quittner is available through the TimesLink on-line service. It offers tips for beginners on navigating the information superhighway.

Details on Times electronic services, A4