Bermudians are being denied savings of as much as 60 percent on their overseas phone bills.

This was the claim yesterday of two businessmen after the Telecommunications Commission said Government should kill their plans for new long distance calling services.

Mr. John Casling and Mr. Michael Leverock were among five entrepreneurs whose bids to offer callback and voice resale services were opposed by the Commission.

The Commission said in its report that the services were basically piggy-backing by using the expensive technology of other companies to offer lower rates.

But Mr. Casling argued Bermuda International Telecom (BIT) could chop a hotel's $1.5 million phone bill in half.

Mr. Leverock, the head of the first callback service on the Island, the ill-fated Global Access Bermuda, claimed he could offer residents 38 percent savings on overseas calls.

The last hope for their ventures lies with Telecommunications Minister the Hon. Grant Gibbons who must decide whether to carry out the Commission's recommendations.

He has said he needs time to review the report and gauge public opinion before making any decisions.

Callback and voice resale services would likely force Cable and Wireless, which has a monopoly on overseas calls, to lower its rates, and Telco, which has a local monopoly, to offer cheaper rates.

The Commission, headed by the late MP the Hon. John Stubbs, said allowing unlimited competition could prove dangerous for Bermuda.

It might discourage investment in existing infrastructure and cause "a group of weak and diluted service providers''.

Commission members noted none of applicants except Telco had proposed to offer the entire range of services currently provided by C&W and Telco. To "a large degree'', they only proposed to provide the more profitable services. Telco had applied to extend its services to compete with C&W.

But the Commission, saying it was in favour of "controlled and limited competition'', said it would only support the company's bid if C&W was allowed to compete with Telco in the domestic market.

This would put an end to domestic calls (only 15 cents for unlimited conversation ) being subsidised by international calls, the rates of which were "inordinately high''.

The Commission noted no application had been received by C&W to compete in the domestic market.

Despite the Commission's opposition, Mr. Casling said he was still "very optimistic'' about his proposal.

"At the end of the day our intention was to try and reduce the cost of long distance calls on the Island,'' he said. "From (the Commission's) recommendations this will not happen. Telco is on record as saying it will not be ready until 1996 to offer an international service.

"And if Telco and C&W work hand in hand, cheaper overseas calls are still being denied.'' Mr. Leverock said he would be submitting additional information to the Minister following the report's "surprising'' recommendations.

His GAB callback service was left dangling -- with 1,000-plus customers -- after the Supreme Court controversially ordered its shutdown last July.

This was in spite of his arguments that no one at Telecommunications had told him he could not start up the venture when he initially approached them.

GAB's service enabled Bermudians to call a switch system in another country.

The system would record their numbers and phone them back, allowing them to dial any overseas number at a lower cost than C&W rates.

GAB was also offering 1-800 number access and a proposed "voice resale'' system whereby GAB would buy or lease a line between Bermuda and America from C&W.

Its customers would then buy into its US long distance affiliate Telegroup Inc's rates by essentially purchasing the "switch'' from C&W or Telco.

Mr. Leverock said he thought the Commission would at least have approved the voice resale proposal.

It was not piggy-backing at all, he said. It was simply being practical.

Modern technology saw high-powered computer systems being accessed all over the world.

Mr. Casling is hoping to start BIT along with several other investors.

Claiming agreements with Sprint and MCI and a the leasing of a fibreoptic connection to Bermuda, he said his company could lower overseas phone bills by 30-60 percent. He also wanted to offer modern video conferencing and radio paging services.

He believed a large number of Bermudians and the hotel and international business sectors wanted BIT's service.

Telco general manager Mr. Ernest Pacheco could not be reached for comment last night.

C&W spokesman Mr. John Instone indicated that like Telco, his company would not be able to offer a domestic service for a few years.

"It's not something you can suddenly go into,'' he said.

Commenting on the Commission's recommendation concerning the callback and voice resale bids, he said there was "no way we could match those (companies') prices''.

The companies were seeking to "piggy-back on a multi-million dollar investment'', he said, adding phone call rates in Bermuda had never risen.

The Commission considered a total of nine applications from entrepreneurs seeking to provide various telecommunications services, including wireless cellular and personal communications.

It recommended Government grant licences to North Atlantic Telecommunications, Bermuda Digital Communications Ltd and Telecom (Bermuda & West Indies) Ltd.

Apart from BIT and GAB, the companies it said should be denied licences were Island Bell, Bermuda Global Access Ltd and TeleBermuda International, which promised to install a new cable to Bermuda at a later time.