TELECOMMUNICATIONS : Local Phone Deregulation Set for Jan. 1 in California

State regulators Monday set an ambitious timetable for deregulating local telephone service in California that would make the state the nation’s first to open to competition markets long dominated by the regional Bell companies.

Regulators set Jan. 1 as the date when big companies that own or install their own transmission lines, switches and other equipment can offer local service across most of the state.

Such competitors are likely to be companies such as AT&T; Corp., MCI Communications Corp., Sprint Corp. and the cable TV unit of Time Warner Inc., all of which have been actively seeking to enter the state’s local phone markets.

California regulators also set March 1 as the date that resellers, or would-be competitors that do not own equipment but must lease it, can start offering local service.

Existing local phone service providers for the vast majority of Californians are Pacific Bell, a unit of Pacific Telesis Group, and GTE California, a unit of GTE Corp.

The schedule could make California the first state with meaningful competition in local phone markets. As the most populous state and one with 15 million phone lines, California also has the largest local service markets.

Pacific Bell, which for more than a decade has held a monopoly franchise for local service covering two-thirds of Californians, said it welcomed competition and the rules issued by the California Public Utilities Commission.

But spokesman Lou Saviano added that with California preparing to open the local market before Washington changes federal rules on the long-distance telephone market, Pacific Bell thinks the competitive odds are one-sided.

The PUC has yet to set specific rules on how or whether competitors would have to provide service in unprofitable rural areas and to the poor under so-called universal service rules.