Former Telecommunications and E-Commerce Minister Renee Webb's resignation from the Cabinet earlier this week apparently took the telecoms sector by surprise, and reaction to her departure among several players within the industry has been fairly consistent.

"It was a surprise to all of us here and in reflection I greatly admire how Minister Webb worked through the changing environment in the industry," said Eddie Saints, CEO of Cable and Wireless. "Whilst we may not have always agreed on all issues, she was always tenacious but fair, and she tried to take a balanced view."

Jeremy Elmas, general manager of CableVision said: "We obviously had a few ups and downs, but we respected her position; she had some goals she was determined to meet and we respect that. I don't know the new Minister personally but we will work to have a good relationship with him."

Mr. Saints added that Ms Webb was also energetic and had obviously enjoyed tackling the new challenges related to changes in the telecommunications industry, facilitating and promoting Bermuda's e-commerce capabilities and the additional challenge of taking on the tourism portfolio.

"However, my only concern towards the end of her tenure was that she couldn't pay as much attention to telecoms as we would have liked because of her duties at tourism," said Mr. Saints. "But we always had good support from her staff at the Ministry."

Francis Mussenden, president and CEO of the Bermuda Telephone Company was also taken aback by Miss Webb's decision to leave the Cabinet.

"We were surprised to hear that Minister Webb had resigned," he said. "Our response could only be to wish her well in all of her future endeavours. We will, of course, welcome Minister Scott as he takes the helm of an interesting and complex ministerial portfolio as Minister of Telecommunications and E-Commerce."

Mr. Saints said that he is looking forward to working with the new Minister: "Going forward we're excited at the prospect of working with Minister Scott. I had the opportunity to meet and work with him on one of the BTEC initiatives recently in his former capacity as Minister of Legislative Affairs. He's professional, competent and very personable and we're looking forward to working with him on the details of further development in the telecoms industry."

James Fitzgerald, CEO of TeleBermuda International (TBI) said that Minister Webb did much to put Bermuda "on the map" in terms of e-commerce and that he hopes the new Minister will continue in a similar vein.

"Minister Webb did a good job and we were pleased with the work she did," he said. "(But) she was very busy over the past year with tourism; with Minister Scott only having telecommunications hopefully there can be a renewed focus on telecoms."

According to Troy Symonds, CEO of Internet services provider Fort Knox Bermuda and a director of the new local cable TV company World on Wireless (WOW), Ms Webb's commitment to change the competitive environment in the industry and her decisiveness were among her greatest qualities during her tenure as Minister.

"She did a tremendous job for the industry. When she started competition was in a very different place and e-commerce was in a radically different place," he said. "She was willing to make hard decisions, even if they weren't the most popular, to make sure things kept moving and I think the whole issue of managed competition has worked well for Bermuda and the consumer ? (for example) over the last several months Internet and long-distance prices have been halved."

He added that Ms Webb pushed for changes even as disputes between industry players and the Government became more frequently litigious, something that Minister Scott will have to face as he takes on the telecommunications portfolio.

"We've become much more litigious (but) Michael Scott understands legislation and should be able to bring that background and a different view to keep things moving forward," said Mr. Symonds.