BELCO Holdings Limited has sold its shares in Quantum Communications (Quantum). A BELCO spokesperson said that the company could reveal neither the sale price nor the identity of the buyers.

Quantum Communications was originally a joint venture between BELCO and Cable & Wireless to provide local telephone services in the city of Hamilton.

The company has access to a fibre optic ring in Hamilton and in 1998 attempted to launch an alternative service to BTC.

However, the regulatory environment at the time was not conducive to competition in the local telecommunications field, and after becoming locked in disputes with BTC, Quantum shut down in 1999.

The main investors lost millions in the venture, but Eddie Saints, general manager of Cable & Wireless Bermuda Ltd, said yesterday: "Quantum was not a failure. It was a forerunner for a better regulated environment."

He confirmed that after four years on the market, a deal was near to completion and details would be announced in the new year.

Asked whether Cable & Wireless had previously put forward potential partners in Quantum who had not received regulatory approval, Mr. Saints said that there had been other suitors which had fallen through: "We were left at the altar, "he said.

Referring to accusations of Government inaction over Quantum, he said: "It is only through the efforts of the Telecommunications Ministry that we have the enforcement and regulatory framework in place to restart Quantum."

Mr. Saints confirmed that BELCO had now fully divested itself of its interest in Quantum and that BELCO, Cable & Wireless and the other private shareholders in Quantum Communications had all transferred their shares "for a negotiated fair price" to a new company.

Cable & Wireless will be the minority partner in the new company, holding 40 percent of the shares and two Bermudian partners will hold the remaining shares.

Mr. Saints said that the exact shareholding ratio between the new partners was a detail yet to be confirmed.

He said that the sale by BELCO had been completed and that documentation for the rest of the transaction was in place, but since the new purchasers had not yet signed on the dotted line, he was not at liberty to disclose the identity of his future partners. However, he did reveal that they were both experienced in the telecommunications industry and were both Bermudian. This indicates a short list of Fort Knox Bermuda, Logic and North Rock as possible investors. The Ministry of Telecommunications did not respond to requests from the Royal Gazette for further information.

However, Shadow Minister for Telecommunications, Allan Marshall, suggested that the problems with Quantum had been dragged out through inaction by the current government :

"We have been waiting for Quantum to be taken forward throughout the life of the Progressive Labour Party, but even despite assurances in the House of Assembly from the Minister that the issue would be resolved, yet again people within the community are being kept in the dark."