Three new applicants for telecommunications licences argued their case before the Telecommunications Commission yesterday in the Senate chamber.

The applicants, Deltronics Ltd., BermudaNet Ltd., and Telecommunications (Bermuda and West Indies) Ltd. (Telecom) spent a total of 40 minutes presenting their proposals.

Cable and Wireless and the Bermuda Telephone Company are expected to oppose the applications and have 14 days to explain why the Commission should reject them.

Deltronics Ltd. is seeking a licence to provide a radio paging service while BermudaNet is applying for a licence to access Internet data. Telecom is seeking licensing to offer a packet radio data network service.

Mr. David Cardell and Ms Romana Cardell are the principals for Deltronics. Mr.

Cardell and Ms Angelita DeSilva currently operate the Cellular Centre which is anticipated to become an asset of Deltronics.

BermudaNet, through two services -- Bermudanet and Bermudafax -- is proposing an Internet facsimile transmission service which they claim will reduce fax costs by 30-40 percent.

Busycomm Ltd. president Mr. Keith Clifton is also president of BermudaNet while former senator Mr. Charles Marshall is head of Telecom.

Mr. Clifton explained that he was applying for a licence to introduce "value added data communication services''.

He said his company was founded 11 years ago as an organisation that provides efficient service and had a broad base of clients including reinsurance firms, attorneys and accounting firms.

His business associate Mr. John Harlow of Pan Am Tel., said BermudaNet would handle all local operations while his company would handle the international operations.

Mr. Harlow said Cable and Wireless objected to their proposal on the grounds that it did not promote Government's objectives and that the service was involved in resale.

"BermudaNet provides value added services that are separate and distinct from resale,'' he said.

Moreover, he said there was no voice telepathy in the application.

Mr. Harlow underscored BermudaNet's sole responsibility for "marketing, sale and execution of services in Bermuda''.

Pan Am Tel. meanwhile, would operate a lease line to the United States and this could be extended to the United Kingdom if "traffic justifies it''.

Telecom is seeking permission to operate technology that will allow credit cards to be verified and payments made quicker.

Company vice president Mr. Roger Oldfield said the technology had the capacity to control things such as traffic lights, water pumps and allow people who use taxi cabs to pay by credit card instead of money.

The Paknet technology, he said, was used in South Africa and the United Kingdom and was being introduced in Moscow.

Last year, the commission recommended some applications be approved to create competition at the domestic level with the Bermuda Telephone Company Ltd. and with Cable and Wireless at the international level. Both these companies currently enjoy monopolies in the Bermuda telephone market.

The commission's rationale behind increased competition was to create improved rates.