IF YOU OWN a telephone in California, you have been the advertising target of a slew of long-distance carriers angling for your business. Competition for local-phone service, however, is so much less jangling that many customers aren’t even aware that they have a choice.

That’s because the local-phone market in California just became competitive two years ago. The state Public Utilities Commission will decide next month, at its Sept. 23 meeting, whether or not it will remain so.

Under federal law, regional Bell operating companies such as SBC had to allow competing phone companies access to their local markets in exchange for access to the long-distance market. This was accomplished by allowing smaller phone companies access to SBC’s network at a discounted statewide average rate of $9.82 per «loop» or connection. Public Utility Commissioners will consider two proposals: one to raise the access rate to $12.92 and the other to raise it $13.26. SBC, which sells access to its customers for $10.50, says the true cost, including higher wages for trenching, is nearly double the proposed rates.

Such an increase will end competition in the local-phone market, where SBC has 89 percent of the business. Technological advances have lowered the cost of network operations, suggesting that access rates should go down, not up.

These discussions will soon be moot: Phone service of today is rapidly being displaced by new technologies, including wireless and Internet telephony. These advances will require new rules and new rates, but those technologies are not yet here and consumers need reliable and affordable service now.

Maintaining a competitive local market should be the guide for the PUC in its deliberations.