North Rock Communications has had an "overwhelming" response to its unveiling of telephone service to the local residential market.

The company announced on Thursday that it was ready to challenge the Bermuda Telephone Company - which has long held the monopoly in the local telephone access arena - at its own game with its immediate launch of the service.

North Rock marketing manager Vicki Coelho told The Royal Gazette on Friday that one hour after its 11 a.m. announcement on Thursday there was a line-up of would-be customers leading out of North Rock's premises.

"The response has been overwhelming," Mrs. Coelho said, adding that staff had been working "flat out" to respond and that the pace had been "as if they had roller skates on".

When contacted for its reaction to North Rock's announcement, BTC spokesperson Ona Fletcher told The Royal Gazette: "BTC is supportive of fair competition in the local access arena as well as in all other areas of the telecommunications industry in Bermuda."

North Rock, which is best known as an Internet service and long distance telephone provider, opened for business six years ago but the launch of this latest service has left the company feeling like it is "brand new", according to Mrs. Coelho.

"It feels like we have opened up as a brand new company...there has been tremendous interest in this service, above what we had expected".

North Rock preceded this public launch with an extensive pilot of the new service, which operates on a fixed wireless system, with a group of subscribers dispersed throughout the Island. The first pilot subscribers started receiving the wireless service, on a testing basis, in December, 1999.

And in January of this year it started laying on additional staff in anticipation of increased business as a result of the new service: "We have a full complement of three install vans, complete with a van each," Mrs. Coelho said, and added: "We are good at managing expectations and are ready to cross-train people on our help desk if necessary".

At Thursday's press conference, a North Rock staff member indicated that new subscribers could expect to have the new voice service up and running at their home within a week of signing up.

The wireless technology, which is dubbed "in-line-of-sight" technology, can simultaneously carry data and voice transmission with the end result that one can be online and talking on the telephone at the same time.

A site visit to the subscriber's property, by one of North Rock's technical teams, determines whether or not a strong signal is received at that location, with North Rock saying it will be able to offer the service to about 80 percent of the Island.

Certain properties, for example low-lying areas, may not get a clear read on the signal and would therefore not be eligible for the service.

At the client site, an antenna (either indoor or outdoor) is hooked up to a radio transmitter, which is then connected to the telephone and/or computer.

Although the company has been licensed to offer the service for some time now, it did not roll out voice service until it was ready to have its launch go smoothly.

On Thursday, general manager Tom Coelho said North Rock had taken the time to build a robust system, and that there had been few problems during Hurricane Fabian.

The company has in the past, said the system was robust: "It is made to accept interference . . . unlike a cellular or voice call, with sending data you can't lose any data. North Rock announced that pricing for telephone service would be charged at a flat rate of $79 per month.

That compares with BTC's monthly access charge of $26 but that fee covers the first 50 calls, and additional calls are charged at a rate of 20 cents per call. BTC was asked for the average number of over calls made by residential customers, but that information had not been made available by press time.

North Rock charges an additional fee for Internet service.

North Rock's entry into what has, until now, been a closed market came with the blessing of the Telecommunications, Tourism and E-Commerce Ministry which is responsible for granting licenses to the telecommunications sector.

At Thursday's press conference, the Ministry heralded the introduction of competition into the market.

Speaking on behalf of Minister Renee Webb, Ministry director Greg Swan said he was pleased that North Rock was now up and running with the service: "We promote competition in every part of the telecommunications sector and this is clearly a milestone," Mr. Swan said.