There will be no free for all in the telecommunications market - despite recommendations for Government to open up the industry in the E-business Green Paper said the Director of Telecommunications, Greg Swan.

The Green Paper, published in May, recommended the deregulation of the Internet Service Providers' market and to give permission for international carriers to provide Internet service to residents. At the moment the Class A carriers, Cable & Wireless and TeleBermuda International are restricted to offering Internet to just business clients and North Rock, Logic and Fort Knox are only allowed to provide service to residential customers.

When asked at a forum on the Green Paper on Monday about the recommendation to deregulate the market, Mr. Swan said: "That part shall stay as it is. The Minister has not given any intention of change that at this time. We don't see any need for that."

Since competition was brought into Bermuda, the cost of Internet has been brought down, but advocates of deregulation say that costs would be brought down further if the bigger Class A carriers were allowed into the domestic market. However, the smaller companies want to keep their exclusive right to residential, but also be allowed to tap into the business market - without losing exclusivity on residential.

But Mr. Swan put paid to speculation that has been rife since the paper was published that the market would be completely opened up - a move that would spell almost certain death to the smaller carriers.

He told industry professionals that having all Class A's allowed into the residential market would not be good for the Island or for sustainability.

And he added that what the Island had at present seemed to work well. He said: "We have been very encouraged by what we see. If we were truly in trouble we would not see the growth we are currently seeing."

He went on to say that there were just over 25,000 customers in Bermuda, but the market was a lucrative one.

"So far we have been able to sustain three cellular providers and two Class A provider and several Class B providers, including the incumbent BTC," he said. "For a subscriber base in as small an Island as Bermuda look at all the service providers we have. I think we are doing something right. And surprisingly enough there are other jurisdictions that think that we are doing something right."

And he went on to say that he had been speaking about the Bermuda model at two conferences - one in the Caribbean and another on Latin America - and the combination of free market with protection for the smaller companies had been considered something that was worth investigation and even copying.

"A free for all potentially could be dangerous to us and I don't think we can afford to have that."