local telecommunications market.

In recent months, hopes have been rekindled that local phone service provider Quantum, which has been on the market for two years, would be resurrected as the Island's second local telephone company.

In March, Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb said in the House of Assembly that the Quantum sale was "imminent''.

But neither long distance provider Cable and Wireless, which wants to up its stake in the company, nor Fort Knox, a locally owned company which wants a piece of the action, could say when Quantum would be up and running.

And Finance Minister Eugene Cox has yet to grant Cable and Wireless exemption from the 60/40 ownership rule so that the long distance company can increase its stake of the company.

Meanwhile, rumours abound in the industry that the Minister has already decided not to sign off on the 60/40 exemption.

That theory doesn't hold much water with Fort Knox executive Troy Symonds.

"The partners are trying to work things out -- as opposed to Government issues,'' he told The Royal Gazette .

"I think from Government's perspective they have concluded what they have to do.'' But Cable and Wireless' ambitions have met with disapproval from other industry players such as Internet service provider North Rock Communications.

They have made it clear to the authorities that they do not approve of allowing Cable and Wireless the lion's share of a local telephone company.

"We believe a `class a' carrier having a `class b' licence would not be healthy for the local telecommunications industry,'' said North Rock's Vicki Coelho.

It would facilitate the practice of "cross fertilisation of telecommunications costs'', she argued, making it easy for Cable and Wireless to kill off the competition.

But Mr. Symonds said ample provisions in the regulations already protect competitors from such practices in the Logic-BTC scenario.

Logic and BTC are both owned by Keytech, he pointed out. Yet BTC is prevented from offering special discounts for using Logic's Internet Services, instead of North Rock, he said. He argues that would likely be the case if and when Cable and Wireless got its 60/40 exemption.

Mr. Symonds, who is the CEO of Southside-based Fort Knox, which provides information technology (IT) services to businesses, confirmed his company's interest in being a shareholder of Quantum. The fit made perfect sense he said, because it would allow Fort Knox to lower prices for its services.

"We see value in having some control over that last loop,'' he said. "Every time we sell our product, we sell connectivity, and many of our clients are large businesses. When they relocate their IT with our facility we have to get the telecommunications to work.'' Two other local companies are interested in being shareholders of the new Quantum.

He could not speak for the other companies but he said that Fort Knox would get a "reasonable enough share to ensure our voices would be heard''.

And, said Mr. Symonds, all parties had to come to agreement on issues such as strategy, management and technological infrastructure. That, not Government, was the determining factor of the timetable.

But he said he could not say when the agreements would be concluded.