TELECOMMUNICATIONS

US West to Swap Cellular System With GTE: US West Inc. has agreed to swap its cellular phone business in San Diego for GTE Corp.’s cellular operations in four states in order to win approval of a planned merger of its domestic cellular business with AirTouch Communications Inc. US West, a regional phone company based near Denver, said last July it had to divest its San Diego cellular phone license in order to merge its domestic cellular operations with AirTouch, a San Francisco-based provider of wireless long-distance phone service. Under federal regulations, one company cannot own both cellular phone licenses in a major market. US West and AirTouch both operate cellular systems in San Diego.