World on Wireless (WOW) boss Gavin Wilson is confident a new 114 channel cable service will be in Bermudian homes by the end of February despite the best efforts of his competitors to derail the launch.

Despite multiple threats of legal action and a bizarre incident in which Mr. Wilson?s own cable was thought to be tampered with, the businessman remains confident his company can keep to the self-imposed deadline.

The issue of a cable broadcast licence to WOW at a hearing last year has caused controversy ever since, with an injunction issued by Hardell, which claims it is entitled to a licence, and CableVision also taking a writ out against the Department of Telecommunications.

Representatives of both companies, and a third which has also threatened legal action, SGC Ventures, all rate WOW?s chances of a February launch as ?zero? ? something Mr. Wilson was keen to refute in

WOW, which is hoping to capture 20 percent of the monopoly currently held by CableVision, will use a tower at Prospect to transmit the UHF broadcast which can be picked up by a ?Christmas Tree? style antenna linked to a set-top box.

Within the next ten days American broadcast company Thales will be coming to Bermuda for field tests of WOW?s equipment while information brochures will be disseminated across the Island in the next couple of weeks ? final presentations will also be made to the Telecommunications Commission by the end of the month.

?I?d like to think we can things launched by the end of February,? said Mr. Wilson, who first brought CableVision to Bermuda in 1979.

?We have to aim for a target and that is what we are going for. I am concerned about the legal threats and controversies, but I am not worried by them.

?When you are entering a competitive market you have to expect that others will do whatever they can to try and hinder you, but that?s life.

?Our number one job is to focus on what we are doing and not the attempts of others to slow the process down.?

He also admitted that he has long meetings with his company?s lawyers in recent days.

Mr. Wilson, a passionate lover of theatre, compared the impending launch of his new company to ?opening night?.

?This is scary stuff,? he added.

?It is very much like opening night. We are going around saying we are going to do certain things, and now we are going to have to do them.?

Householders will use 18-inch antennae, on a nine-inch base, which will be attached to the eaves of a house and linked to a set-top box to pick up the new service.