A Federal appeals court reversed two decisions yesterday that the Federal Communications Commission had made concerning the regulation of computer information services provided over telephone lines.
The F.C.C. gave permission in 1986 to local telephone companies owned by the seven regional Bell operating companies to provide these services without setting up separate subsidiaries. The F.C.C. also said that these operations should not be overseen by state regulators.
But the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco ruled late yesterday that the F.C.C. had not met legal standards for proof that either decision was necessary. The court canceled both of the F.C.C.'s actions.
The ruling was seen as highly significant in the decades-old and often bitter dispute over how the states and the Federal Government should share the responsibility of regulating the telephone industry.
The court decision ''certainly suggests that the states will be a major player for some time to come,'' said Barry G. Cole, the visiting director of the Center for Telecommunications and Information Studies at the Columbia University Business School.
Most of the local telephone companies covered by the decision, including the Pacific Bell Company in California, provide information services but did not set up separate companies. If the decision prompts the F.C.C. to change its position, these companies could be forced to redesign their corporate structures, a process that could prove costly. Yesterday's decision is subject to appeal to the United States Supreme Court.
The Pacific Telesis Group, which owns Pacific Bell, expressed dismay at the decision but said it hoped the F.C.C. would go through the lengthy legal procedures needed to restore its original decisions. The existing policy ''was good for consumers and it was good for the industry,'' said Ronald F. Stowe, the company's vice president for government relations.
The California Public Utilities Commission led a group of state regulatory bodies in asking the court to review the F.C.C.'s decision to limit the role of state regulators. The MCI Communications Corporation led a group of corporations in appealing the F.C.C.'s decision eliminating the requirement for separate subsidiaries.
Under the terms of the 1984 breakup of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, the seven regional Bell operating companies are allowed to create and transmit basic services like voice communication. They may also transmit, but not create, more complex services like computer data bases; these must be developed by other companies.
According to the Videotex Industries Association, an information-services trade group based in Silver Spring, Md., the North American information services industry has annual revenues of $150 million to $200 million and nearly 2 million subscribers.