COMMUNICATIONS

Bell Atlantic-TCI Deal is Legal, Executive Says: Federal regulators should not block the $21.4-billion merger of Bell Atlantic Corp. and Tele-Communications Inc. on antitrust grounds because the combined company wouldn’t have overlapping telephone and cable businesses in any one market, Bell Atlantic Chairman Raymond Smith said. Where Bell Atlantic and TCI now both operate in the same market, one of the local companies will be spun-off to new owners so the merger “will increase competition,” he said during an appearance on NBC’s “John McLaughlin: One on One.” Some lawmakers and consumer groups have attacked the mammoth transaction, saying it will use money paid by telephone customers to build an interactive TV-cable system that consumers don’t need and may not want. But Smith said that the merger won’t involve any money generated from telephone customers.