reports The gloves are off in the battle for customers in the provision of telephone and data telecommunications services in Bermuda and Government is on the receiving end of a large number of those blows.

Bermuda Telephone Co. Ltd. (BTC) president and chief executive officer Lorraine Lyle yesterday slammed Government for "ill conceived and ineffectual'' regulations on the telecommunications sector.

She said Telecommunications Director Ted Pitman and Telecommunications Minister John Barritt should either enforce the rules fairly on all the companies, or remove the regulations and allow open competition.

"My suggestion to Mr. Pitman, Mr. Barritt and the Telecommunications Commission is that they should take their obligation seriously, and evenly and openly apply what few, nebulous, rules there are, or step back and let free market forces prevail.'' Ms Lyle was commenting on global giant Cable & Wireless' purchase of stakes in local tele communications companies about to attack BTC's monopoly.

"It is not Cable & Wireless that is turning up the heat on BTC,'' she said earlier on in her talk before the Hamilton Lions Club. "Rather, the main cause for concern is an ill conceived and ineffectual regulatory environment in which rules are unclear and unevenly applied. "When a regulatory organisation lacks form, structure and conviction it allows players with the global mass of Cable & Wireless to advantage themselves.'' Cable & Wireless recently purchased about 30 to 35 percent of Quantum Communications, which is going after BTC's Hamilton market, and 27 percent of Bermuda Digital Communications Ltd., which is going after the cellular telephone sector.

Cable & Wireless, which previously had a monopoly on international services from Bermuda to overseas, is now in competition with startup TeleBermuda International Ltd.

BTC, which provides service within the Island, will soon have competitors Bermuda Digital and Quantum to contend with.

Ms Lyle said the stakes by Cable & Wireless in the local marketplace runs against the Telecommunications Act, Government's position paper on allowing competition, and the "best interests'' of Bermuda.

The purchases would move the telecommunications sector further away from a competitive environment and lower prices as was promised by Government.

Regulations protecting new entrants into the telecommunications market provide "false restrictions and barriers'' and haven't worked elsewhere, she said.

In response to a question she called on Government to involve the public in some of the decisions being made.

"There appears there is no public process being pursued,'' she said.

Cable & Wireless is also in the process of forming a local company to handle its Bermuda operations. Quantum is due to begin operating this year, while Bermuda Digital is due to start early next year.

Ken Spurling of TeleBermuda also criticised the Cable & Wireless purchases.

"By having a large stake in both companies, Cable & Wireless would appear to be contrary to the spirit of what Government is trying to do in opening the telecommunications sector to competition,'' he said yesterday in an interview.

"...It is now trying to put a conglomerate together to have a large controlling interest in the domestic market.'' He said TeleBermuda was considering protesting the move to the Telecommunications Commission when it holds a hearing on whether to grant a licence to Bermuda Digital.

Telecommunications minister Mr. Barritt did not return telephone calls.

Lorraine Lyle John Barritt GOVERNMENT GVT