Laws letting Bermudians with computers dial up super cheap overseas calls but forcing others to pay heavy bills "made a mockery'' of fairness.

Logic president Peter Durhager last night lambasted the "double-standard'' highlighted by a blitz of new adverts for a New Jersey-based online computer company in The Royal Gazette yesterday.

Any of the Island's residents who were sick of paying costly long distance phone bills may have been tempted by TelecomComputers.com to "get a computer to place telephone calls over the Internet''.

The US company's website boasts that when users buy a $2,999 "telecomputer'', it "acts as a direct communications link between two or more remote offices, eliminating long distance charges''.

"Cost savings are substantial, resulting in a typical return on investment of one month,'' it gushes.

On Monday The Royal Gazette revealed Logic Communications was forced to withdraw their Logicphone product through which customers could use a traditional telephone to ring up low prices via the Internet.

It was cancelled just ten days into its market trial after the Government threatened to press criminal charges against Logic execs for allegedly breaching the carrier's licence.

"I'm not sure on what basis they're seeking to do business in Bermuda and I don't see how they are more licensed to do this business than a Bermuda company like Logic.

"This makes a complete mockery of the system.

"If someone from outside Bermuda can come along and just because their product doesn't look like a traditional telephone they get away with it, even if it does exactly the same job, then what is the problem here?'' But Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb last night rejected the suggestion that a double standard existed allowing those with the right software and hardware to get cheap calls, while other could not.

She said the issue was that Logic was licensed as a Class C carrier so could not offer "voice telephony in whatever form''.

"But that is a separate issue. There is nothing to stop the public from downloading one telephone software from the Internet. The Government does not regulate what people download.

"Does he want us to regulate the Internet? I don't think Logic wants that since it's an Internet service provider.'' She also sniped that Logic could "give up'' on its "public relations exercise'' to get sympathy from the Island's residents because "it's not doing any good''.

Speaking from her Philadelphia base, TelecomComputers.com contact for the Caribbean and Bermuda, Lisa Cimacata, said the recent furore over Logic's withdrawal had not prompted placement of the ads.

And they had been "in the works for some time''.

She said the company was not "exclusively targeting Bermuda''.

Their website says most of the company's sales and support comes out of the US but there are also European Union, Latin American and Asia Pacific contacts.

"We are a PC company that manufactures and sells standard computers, for example a regular Pentium 200 running on Windows NT, with telecommunications capability,'' Ms Cimacata explained.

Peter Durhager Renee Webb