Two months ago, Pacific Bell launched a brand new, technically advanced television system in Los Angeles and Orange counties unlike anything the marketplace had ever seen before.

Hardly anyone appeared to notice.

Pacific Bell Digital Television is the first attempt to transform the microwave spectrum into a mass television medium, an effort that cost $40 million just to set up the transmitting infrastructure.

But when it finally came time to launch the system this spring after years of development, barely a peep was heard from Pacific Bell.

“I call it the ‘stealth launch,'” said senior analyst John Mansell with Paul Kagan Associates.

Three years ago, Pac Bell parent Pacific Telesis Group spent $300 million to buy into a joint venture with two other Baby Bells called Tele-TV, whose mission was originally to compete with cable television by providing video services through phone lines. But Tele-TV is a shadow of its former self, its staff having been cut in half and its two high-profile heads, Sandy Grushow and Howard Stringer, having left for television industry jobs.

Meanwhile, Pacific Telesis has been acquired by San Antonio, Texas-based SBC Communications Inc. which is highly skeptical about the video business. On June 19, SBC announced it was all but abandoning its video strategy, halting construction of fiber networks in San Jose and San Diego that would have allowed for video transmission, and shutting down a video experiment in Richardson, Texas.

The moves mean there is only one survivor within SBC of a once-grand video design: Pacific Bell Digital Television.

An SBC spokeswoman refused to divulge how many people have subscribed to the system since it launched in late May, nor would she discuss its marketing plans. Company executives are not talking to the media.

“We’re doing a very gradual rollout because we want to ensure the highest possible level of customer service,” said SBC spokeswoman Susan Petoletti.

So far, marketing of the system has been confined to a limited direct mail campaign, Petoletti said. Consumers can subscribe by calling an “888” number set up by Pac Bell.

Pac Bell’s system offers many of the advantages of satellite television, but consumers don’t have to buy a satellite dish to receive it. Microwave signals are transmitted from antennas in Los Angeles and Orange counties and recieved with digital boxes installed by Pacific Bell.

The system offers 150 channels of cable programming, digital music, and pay-per-view entertainment.

Part of the reason for the lack of marketing of the system may simply be that the budgets for such activities are in limbo as SBC works on absorbing Pacific Telesis, said senior analyst Larry Gerbrandt with Paul Kagan.

Few hold out much hope that Pacific Bell’s system will ever dethrone the cable or satellite giants, in Southern California or anywhere else.

“(SBC is) giving us all the indications that this system isn’t going to do particularly well,” Gerbrandt said. “If a service is late, under-marketed and very quietly rolled out, that doesn’t give the impression that there’s a huge amount of enthusiasm for it at SBC.”