Telecom Reform Effort Meets New Opposition : Congress: Provision would give states less regulatory say. Staffs work on last-minute proposals to overcome impasse.

Under pressure from Republican leaders to finish a sweeping telecommunications bill, House and Senate conference committee staffers worked into the night Tuesday on last-minute proposals to solve a complex legislative impasse.

Republicans say they have made new offers to allay the concerns of Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.), who is doing the Clinton administration’s bidding in the House-Senate conference on telecom reform and who is concerned that the measure would lead to an undue concentration of media ownership and a lopsided playing field for local telephone competition.

But even as those proposals remained in limbo, with no word as to whether Hollings would go along, opposition arose on new fronts as a key state regulator voiced concerns about the diminished role states would have under a new telephone regulation provision.

Under the new wording, if federal regulators decide not oversee the regional Bells’ interstate business, then a state public utility commission could not regulate them within the state, said California Public Utilities Commissioner P. Gregory Conlon.

“We may lose our regulatory powers if the [Federal Communications Commission] decides it doesn’t want to regulate” the regional Bell operating companies, Conlon said.

Conlon said he and members of some other state commissions are “marshaling our forces to get that language eliminated.”

It is unclear whether Republicans, who have been pushing for maximum possible deregulation on all fronts, will try to appease the states.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) earlier this week promised that a bill deregulating the burgeoning telecommunications industry would be ready for a vote by the full House by Friday.

But most industry officials and political observers are skeptical that deadline can be met.

“I’d be stunned if [Democrats] went along with what they [Republicans] have on the table right now,” said Gene Kimmelman, co-director of the Washington office of Consumers Union.

Although most of the attention over the last few days has been devoted to the media concentration issue, some believe that the tentative deal reached last week that would allow the Baby Bells to enter the long-distance telephone business also remains at issue.

“There’s a lot of pawing at the ground and fire being breathed over the media stuff,” said one broadcast lobbyist. “But it’s never as difficult as portrayed.”

On media concentration, House Republicans say they are adamant in their desire to do away with cable TV and broadcast cross-ownership rules and to allow broadcasters to own more than one TV station in a single market.

They have been more flexible on radio rules.

Instead of simply removing all limits on the maximum number of radio stations one firm could own in a single market--the current level is 12--a new proposal would set a minimum of six different radio station owners, or “voices,” for large markets, and three for smaller markets.

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Times staff writer Leslie Helm contributed to this report.