CellularOne executives Michael Leverock and Kurt Eve last week announced they had bought out Hardell Cable TV Ltd. ? primarily to gain a wireless cable TV licence.

This week, the Government announced its proposals for the future regulation of the telecommunications industry ? which included dismantling the current licensing system.

But Mr. Leverock said yesterday that the licence still had significant business value and that he and Mr. Eve, like all industry stakeholders, had been well aware of what the Government had been likely to propose.

And he added that the proposed lifting of restrictions of foreign investment in the industry could be beneficial as more investment was needed to keep services on the Island ?cutting edge?.

The Environment, Telecommunications and E-Commerce Ministry (METEC) has proposed introducing a single, all-embracing licence that would replace the current regime, which limits licensees to one particular sector. Mr. Leverock said the time lapse before the proposals come into effect would give his company a head start over competitors in introducing new wireless services before the new rules came in.

?The new licensing regime is not cast in stone yet,? Mr. Leverock said. ?While the Government may have lofty ambitions of getting this done in a timely way ? given the response from some in the industry ? I?m not sure it?s going to happen in the timeframe they want.

?With the licence we acquired from Hardell, we can now start formulating our whole business plan. And from a mercenary point of view, there?s one less player in the field we have to compete against.

?The wireless industry has a number of players who have wireless licences, but there is a moratorium on new entrants at this time. There could have been someone with more drive and capital who could have taken over Hardell, but we decided to do it first.?

Mr. Leverock and Mr. Eve plan to operate the former Hardell licence under a new company name, BDB Ltd., which stands for Bermuda Digital Broadband.

On the topic of METEC?s proposed reforms, Mr. Leverock said: ?Fundamentally there was a need for a change of the regulations because the legislation we have been operating by has been in existence for 11 years and things have changed in that time. That?s not to say that these proposals could not be improved.

?They could have done it in one of two ways, incremental or sweeping. They have decided to make sweeping changes.

?I would like to think that Bermudians? best interests will be to the fore. We just want to be able to compete in a fair business environment. We are open to new things and we?re not afraid of change or competition.?The proposed abandonment of the 60:40 rule would be permit any telecommunications company operating on the Island to be totally foreign-owned.

Internet service providers Fort Knox and North Rock Communications both voiced fears in yesterday?s that this could wipe out Bermudian ownership in the industry, create a duopoly and bring higher prices for services.

But Mr. Leverock said there was need for more investment and cited his own experience of starting CellularOne in 1998.

?We had a bit of a time raising funds locally when we first started,? he said. ?It was not even a whole lot of money.

?In order to get going we had to get an exemption from the 60:40 rule. So we have a limitation of 50 percent foreign ownership.?

Atlantic Tele-Network, Inc. is the 44 percent overseas owner of CellularOne.

?It comes down to availability of capital. If we want to keep our infrastructure up to date and remain cutting edge and have better prices for consumers, then there has to be capital to make that happen. And if we can?t raise the funds locally, then we have to be able to get it from somewhere else,? Mr. Leverock added.

?There is certainly some merit in having Bermudian ownership of vital infrastructure. And caveats could be put into these proposals to ensure that foreign owners can?t just pull out.

?But the most important thing is that the changes are of long-term benefit to the Island.?