$100 million annually, a national newspaper in Canada has reported.

The Globe and Mail, touted as Canada's business newspaper, on Saturday cited the surprise figure as they reported the Government's decision to allow TeleBermuda International Ltd. the right to bring a competing international long distance service to the Island.

The newspaper reported that the giant British firm's telecommunications Bermuda monopoly was "worth $100 million a year to connect Bermuda to the outside world.'' But that would exclude other income for Cable & Wireless from international switching of transit traffic done through the Bermuda operations that connect calls originating and terminating in other jurisdictions.

But the firm's local subsidiary, while conceding the $100 million figure, denied that, saying, in a short statement that the quoted figure in the article "is indicative of the gross turnover for all products and services currently provided by C&W in Bermuda.

"This amount excludes out payments to other administrations including the Bermuda Telephone Company. It also excludes the total operating costs of the C&W Bermuda facility.'' Unlike Cable & Wireless, the TeleBermuda venture would have Bermuda ownership in a 60/40 deal that would mean that Bermudian shareholders would directly benefit from the new company's telecommunications activities.

TeleBermuda's proposals to Government cited Milligan-Whyte & Smith senior partner Senator Lynda Milligan-Whyte, BDC Ltd. president Mr. Ward Young and First Bermuda Securities president Mr. Jeffrey Conyers as three of the prominent Bermudians who are to sit on its board of directors.

Bermudians of all walks of life will be invited to share in the revenue of the company through a share offer that will go public later.

The 40 percent of the deal will be held by a British Virgin Islands company controlled by Canadian communications entrepreneur Mr. Mike Kedar, two of his former partners in Call-Net Enterprises Inc. and Helix Investments Ltd.

The Globe and Mail describe Mr. Kedar as the founder of Call-Net, Canada's leading long distance reseller, which now owns Canada's third largest long distance phone company, Sprint Canada Inc.

The article said that TeleBermuda will allow Mr. Kedar to enter the global long distance market, and make Bermuda a major international gateway for alternative carriers needing service between Europe and North America, "similar to Singapore's strategy that has made that island a major telecommunications hub in the Pacific.'' Mr. Kedar is quoted as saying, "My vision is to build a second tier international carrier that is not aligned with a dominant phone company.'' He returns to the Island next week and will seek a lease on two or three thousand square feet of office space in Hamilton to conduct business, as the company funds the construction of the connecting Bermuda spur for the CANUS-1 submarine cable, establishing an alternative fibre optic telecommunications link.

Part of the plan is to establish Bermuda as a telecommunications hub for transAtlantic traffic and traffic from South America to North America that could be switched in Bermuda.

The company has applied to locate their switching operation on base lands where their cable will be landed.

The firm is to raise some $80 million, 60 or 70 percent of which will be raised through a share offer to be launched on the Bermuda Stock Exchange through First Bermuda Securities Ltd.

Mr. Kedar said that he is working with the investment community locally and abroad, and with Teleglobe Canada, one of the world's largest international carriers, to secure the additional financing and construction resources for the CANUS-1. TeleBermuda expects to have the cable completed within a year.

Mr. Kedar said yesterday, "A lot depends on how quickly we can negotiate inter-connection and equal access, and some other things that Telco (The Bermuda telephone Company Ltd.) will have to do. They are part of the equation and so is Cable & Wireless. We are all in it together and as the Minister said, a lot of cooperation will be required to make the new competitive environment a success.

"Our presence will be to the benefit of everyone, including Telco. We can work together. I think that there is a tremendous opportunity for Telco to work with us in Bermuda and elsewhere. We are not oblivious to Telco's desire to grow and to expand.'' TeleBermuda's lawyers are Milligan-Whyte & Smith, the firm that submitted the applications to Government for the Telecommunications licence. They've been with the project for some 18 months.

Senior attorney, Mr. Bala Nadarajah said of the future: "It's going to be a larger pie of business and Telco will get a piece of that.

"Whoever is given competitive rights for the international sector will still have to rely on the Bermuda Telephone Company.'' Senator Lynda Milligan-Whyte, the firm's senior partner, said that software and information-based companies will refuse to relocate here if they have telephone rates that are high in the absence of choice.

Mr. Nadarajah pointed out: "The 1986 Bermuda Telecommunications Act is one of the few pieces of legislation anywhere in the world that recognises the importance of choice and has stated so in the statute itself.'' He referred to a section that gives the Minister the power to licence other carriers when it is in the public interest, or, when one carrier or a group of carriers are in substantial control of a public telecommunication service so that there is "insufficient competition to stimulate reductions in rates and charges and to provide adequate freedom of choice to the public.'' Said Mr. Nadarajah, "When you look at the broader picture, what emerges is that the Minister's decision is in keeping with what the legislature of Bermuda always intended. That is to give the freedom of choice to the people.

And it is in the public interest of Bermuda.'' Senator Milligan-Whyte said, "Bermuda has been ushered into a new era. We are looking to expand tourism and international business. We have to look at other jurisdictions, some to the south of us that are very good, offering cheaper services to their clients. Bermuda has to move in that direction.

"When TeleBermuda is up and running, you'll find an expansion of information-based companies that you'll not believe.

"I've spoken to a number of software houses in the US who are very interested in locating some of their operations in Bermuda, especially if they are involved in international distribution of their software.

"They would like to be able to package and distribute the floppy disk from Bermuda. It is tax driven, but when you think of their telecommunications costs, it was prohibitive. What they would have gained, they would have lost.

So we have to bring those costs down.'' KEY COMPETITION -- TeleBermuda International Ltd. chairman, Canadian Mr. Mike Kedar (right), and businessman, Mr. Ward Young, are prime movers in the move to bring an alternative telecommunications link to Bermuda.