WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department is close to recommending that a regional Bell telephone company be allowed to enter the long-distance industry for the first time since the government forced the breakup of the Bell System more than a decade ago.
People familiar with the proposal, which would require the approval of a federal judge, say it would allow Ameritech Corp. to offer long-distance service to customers in metropolitan Chicago.
In return, the company would be required to open its local-telephone business in the area to full competition by other telecommunications companies.
The Justice Department's proposal -- though limited to only one of the seven Bell companies, and covering only a small portion of the company's five-state service region -- could set a precedent for eventually allowing all the regional Bells to provide long-distance service.
The court-supervised ground rules used in breaking up AT&T;'s Bell System in 1984 forbade the regional Bells from providing long-distance service.
But in recent years, growing telecommunications competition has made it increasingly likely that those restrictions eventually will be lifted.
The question has been how soon.
Justice Department officials have begun circulating a proposal among executives at Ameritech and at several long-distance companies and asked them to comment.
The officials indicated that they hoped to file a formal recommendation within two weeks to U.S. District Court Judge Harold H. Greene.
Greene oversees the antitrust decree that governs the Bell companies.