Two years after filing suit, a dispute pitting Hardell Entertainment and Hardell Cable TV against the Minister of Telecommunications began in Supreme Court yesterday.

Hardell lawyer Delroy Duncan spent two hours laying out his client's case yesterday morning, but the afternoon session in Supreme Court ended before it even began when Puisne judge Geoffrey Bell agreed to adjourn the case until this morning and left Mr. Duncan and Solicitor General Wilhelm Bourne in further discussions.

Although Minister of Telecommunications and E-Commerce Michael Scott was on hand for the hearing, Hardell owner Harold Darrell filed the suit when Ren?e Webb held the portfolio. It stems from a dispute over a wireless cable television service licence and frequency allocation which, Mr. Darrell argued, the former UBP government granted him years ago.

Hardell alleges that in the autumn of 2002 Minister Webb revoked the frequencies allocated to his company and later placed a moratorium on the granting of new cable licences after first granting such a licence to new applicant on the block World on Wireless!

The court has been asked to review her actions which Mr. Duncan termed yesterday an "abuse of power".

The court heard that Mr. Darrell's quest to become a wireless provider dated back to 1995 when he submitted an application for a licence to operate a 32-channel wireless service. Mr. Duncan said that back then such technology was "brand new to Bermuda and not understood by the Ministry of Telecommunications".

The lawyer submitted correspondence from then-Minister of Telecommunications John Barritt, then-Finance Minister and Acting Minister of Telecommunications Grant Gibbons as well as from then-Telecommunications Inspector Ted Pitman.

Mr. Duncan argued that the correspondence from 1996 created reasonable expectations that Mr. Darrell would receive a licence to operate his wireless service. However Government first had to put in place a new regulatory framework that would cover the new technology.

Mr. Duncan said that while Mr. Darrell sat by waiting for the new regulations and his licence: "They abolished the regulations, enacted new ones and left him out in the cold."

The court also heard that Mr. Darrell had faced a considerable expenditure while he waited for the licence. Mr. Duncan submitted a balance sheet for the company dated May, 1998 which had been signed by then Deloitte and Touche auditor Terry Lister. It showed that up to that point Mr. Darrell's company had incurred $1.840 million in expenses.

The hearing will resume this morning.