Cable TV giant lags in the race to launch L.A. into multimedia age.

Tele-Communications Inc. is aggressively trying to win the race to offer the nation's consumers an electronic superhighway. The Denver-based cable television giant announced a $2 billion plan last week to build a fiber-optic network that will reach 100 cities this year. However, TCI is well behind in the race to fiber-optically wire the Los Angeles market.

Several cable operators here are well ahead of TCI in laying fiber-optic cable that potentially leads to new applications such as movies on demand, interactive television, video phones, 500 channels and expanded data transmission systems.

The beginnings of those applications are at least three years away but the laying of a fiber-optic network is a critical step in the process. Fiber-optic cable will bring improved cable reception sooner and improvements could be seen this year in some sections of Los Angeles, cable executives say.

With 9.5 million customers in 48 states, TCI is the largest cable television conglomerate in America and well positioned to pioneer the electronic highway, industry analysts have said. But in Los Angeles, TCI is a minor player with only 45,000 spread-out subscribers in Arcadia, Hacienda Heights, Pico Riviera, Baldwin Park and Van Nuys.

Several other cable operators have quietly been laying fiber, including Crown Cable, King and Century Cable. Fiber optic has been constructed in areas as rural as Sunland and as urban as West Hollywood.

TCI plans to spend $750 million this year to lay 7,000 miles of fiber cable in over 100 cities. By the end of 1996 the project will be extended to over 250 cities. The project has already begun in four designated "super hubs" including San Francisco, Pittsburgh, South Florida and Denver. Work will begin this year in four other regional hubs including Chicago, Salt Lake City, St. Louis and Hartford.

TCI is not including Los Angeles in its eight regional hub cities. TCI is devising a plan for Southern California that would represent around a $500,000 investment, according to TCI executives.

"We can't do all the cities at the same time," said Tom Novotny, TCI's Southern California area manager based in Redlands. "There isn't the material and the money to do it. In Los Angeles, we are spread out and our services aren't congested in one area. In the other cities we can test our new system easier. I think over the next three years you will see a lot of activity from us in the L.A. area."

TCI needs more subscribers here and Novotny hopes to improve TCI's penetration in the market by offering more diverse programming, especially in heavily ethnic communities. TCI has better penetration in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties where fiber optic is being laid over the next two years and plans are in place.

The TCI announcement was greeted by local cable operators as good news.

"The beauty of the TCI announcement is it helps the whole industry strengthen its position with getting manufacturers to push the technology forward," said Craig Watson, president of the Southern California Cable Association. "Manufacturers won't tool up to make converter boxes for digital compression on their own. But when the largest cable company makes this type of announcement, it gets their attention."

Watson, general manager for Crown Cable, said Crown has been among the local pioneers in laying fiber-optic cable, starting with an experimental project

seven years ago. It is spending $1.3 million this year to replace major trunk lines with fiber optic and the lasers that drive it.

The current copper wiring requires amplifiers to increase the signals' strength. These amplifiers increase the chance of noise and interference but fiber optic reduces those problems while having the capacity to carry much more information, Watson said.

With the cost of fiber-optic cable decreasing 10 percent in the last year, more companies are now jumping on the fiber wagon.

Century Cable Communications Corp. has undertaken one of the most aggressive fiber-optic buildouts in the county with 150 miles of fiber optic laid at $20,000 per mile. Around 10 percent of Century's system has been converted to fiber and many more miles will be laid, said Bill Rosendahl, senior vice president of Century Cable.

The upgrades to Century's system will increase the number of channels it offers to 78 from 40 in some areas this year in all its territories here, including Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and Santa Monica. The company has invested $100 million the last five years to rebuild its system and get ready for the new applications.

Mike Harris, a senior vice president at Century, predicted it could take at least another three years before consumers are offered these new applications. Partnerships between software and hardware companies will speed the development of movies on demand and interactive television, he said.

Times Mirror Cable Television started laying fiber in its Palos Verde region in the late 1980s and in Irvine has put fiber within one mile of consumers' homes. Eventually fiber optic will go into the home when new pay services are ready to be marketed. This year Times Mirror plans to lay 1.2 miles of fiber optic every hour in the company's 13 states. Susan Richey, a spokeswoman for the company, said 40 percent of the 320-mile system in California will have a fiber backbone this year, and the company is exploring the new services applications.

"We are looking at them very carefully and we have already introduced digital cable radio," Richey said. "It is a good way for us to understand how digital signals work and so far we have been real pleased."