BRINGING DOWN THE BARRIERS

* Nov. 4, 1992: AT&T announces intention to buy one third of McCaw Cellular.

* Dec. 11: Pacific Telesis announces plan to spin off its wireless business into a separate company free to pursue other lines of business.

* Feb. 22, 1993: Ameritech proposes giving up monopoly of local phone service in exchange for the right to get into other businesses, such as long-distance and cable TV.

* March 9: Sprint completes its merger with Centel Corporation, a cellular and local-phone service provider. It also acquires United Telephone of Florida in the same month.

* May 17: Time Warner and USWest announce partnership to create interactive cable network.

* July 29: MCI announces it has more than 150 partners to build nationwide network of next-generation mobile phone service, called Personal Communication Network.

* Aug. 16: AT&T announces plan for a complete takeover of McCaw.

* Aug. 24: Continental Cablevision Inc. plans next year to hook up directly with a huge computer network-of- networks, called Internet.

* Aug. 24: Bell Atlantic wins federal court case to sell video programming in its own service area.