Quantum Communications has just received its telecommunications licence to operate. Finally. Quantum is the company set up to compete with the Bermuda Telephone Co. Ltd. (BTC) by providing a fibre-optic telecommunications service in the City of Hamilton.

Belco Holdings Ltd. president and chief executive officer Garry Madeiros expressed frustration with the delay in granting a licence to Quantum. Belco owns a majority stake in Quantum. A similar delay occurred with Internet-provider North Rock Communications, which received its licence early in December.

Mr. Madeiros said Quantum was offered a licence back in January and by September had completed all of the requirements necessary to get it. The company had finished building its fibre-optic network in Hamilton.

He's therefore talking about at least two months of money sitting in the ground waiting to be used with no revenue stream.

"It sets us behind big time,'' he said. "We can't sign up customers. We have no cash flow, nor can we conclude discussions on tariffs. You are non-existent while waiting.'' The delays also gave competitor BTC time to figure out its strategy in dealing with Quantum's attack on its prime market.

A similar delay seems to have occurred with North Rock Communications. The company is competing with Logic Communications and spent three to four months waiting for a licence to be granted. Meanwhile its equipment and staff sat around. Until the licence was received it couldn't sign customers up.

The problem isn't so much with the Telecommunications Department. Until a few months ago it was basically a one-man operation, dependent on director Ted Pitman, who was out sick for a period of time this year.

The blame for the delays rests on Government, which decided to open up competition in the telecommunications market without giving the department the staff it needed to process and deal with all the new issues it faced.

Previously the department only had to deal with BTC and Cable & Wireless which would make the occasional rate change. It also granted radio licenses to individuals and private companies.

Now it has to deal with TeleBermuda International, Quantum, Logic Communications, Quantum, and the fledgling Bermuda Digital Communications Ltd.

The department must also deal with the disputes over number portability, and charges for interconnectivity among the carriers.

This is a real issue for Quantum, which has to negotiate with BTC to get its customers connected to the rest of the Island. It will also have to deal with Cable & Wireless (which owns a piece of Quantum and a piece of Bermuda Digital) and TeleBermuda as each customer has a choice between the two long distance operators.

The telecommunications companies will also have to work out the technical aspects of allowing customers to keep the same telephone numbers when they switch between BTC and Quantum, or in the future between the cellular services of BTC and Bermuda Digital.

Bermuda Digital plans on starting operations early next year.

The companies can be consoled that the Telecommunications Department has hired assistant telecommunications inspector Hiram Edwards, who began work four months ago. A consultant from Canada is expected to arrive for a three year stint. And the department is on the lookout for another assistant inspector.

It's not unusual that an electric utility such as Belco is investing in the telecommunications sector to compete with the telephone companies. The same crossover in technologies is occurring in the US where the utilities are proving themselves more versatile in beating the phone companies to the punch.

Power companies already have the utility poles, the underground network and a huge customer pool to tap. Bloomberg news service reports many US utilities are offering phone and cable TV services to their customers, with the added convenience of allowing them to pay for all on the same bill. Utilities can cut costs by combining not only the wiring but the billing.

In New York, for example, Delmarva Power & Light Co. has formed Connectiv Communications Inc. to compete with Bell Atlantic Corp. and others. This year Potomac Electric Power Co. joined telecommunications and cable-TV company C-Tec Corp. to provide phone service. AT&T has teamed up with Peco Energy Corp to form EnergyOne LLC to provide power and Internet access on one bill.

Analysts are forecasting phone service could provide up to ten percent of some utilities' revenue. While for now the phone lines are separate from the electric lines, there's new technology being developed which would combine the two. Canada's Northern Telecom Ltd. and UK-based United Utilities Plc teamed up to develop technology that allows computers to transmit data over electricity wires.

Internet gambling is taking off in the Caribbean according to Associated Press news service. The legal issues being raised in individual jurisdictions about how to police operations set up elsewhere has led US legislators to try and find a way to stop the gambling across borders.

Meanwhile some are predicting Internet gambling could become a billion-dollar industry by 2000. Caribbean governments are charging operators up to $100,000 a year for licences. Antigua has issued 21 online betting licences. Antigua requires the gambling houses to operate from a free trade zone, hire local residents, pay taxes and admit government inspectors without notice. St. Kitts and Nevis, Curacao, Grenada and Dominica, among others, have also welcomed Internet gambling.

How's this for the serious joke of the year. A hacker group called PANTS/HAGIS broke though Yahoo!'s security on December 8, 10 p.m., the directory company reported. HAGIS stands for Hackers Against Geeks in Snowsuits.

The group posted a note on Yahoo! with a threatening message warning they would unleash a virus bomb unless electronic outlaw Kevin Mitnick was released from jail. Mr. Mitnick will be on trial in April in the US for fraud charges involving a multimillion-dollar crime wave in cyberspace.

According to Yahoo! the message read: "For the past month, anyone who Has viewed Yahoo's page & used their search engine now has a logic bomb/worm implanted deep within their computer. On Christmas Day, 1998, the logic bomb part of this `virus' will become active, wreaking havoc upon the entire planet's networks. The virus can be stopped but not by mortals.'' Yahoo! sought to defuse surfers' worries by saying the message had only been up for about 15 minutes, and that there was no virus. The PANTS/HAGIS group is well known for pranks in cyberspace.