TeleBermuda has joined Cable & Wireless in its battle against Logic Communication's slashed-rate long-distance service.

TeleBermuda provides Logic with its fibre-optic connection and company COO Scott Socol acknowledged that Logic was essentially reselling TBI's service at a reduced rate.

"LogicPhone is an inappropriate use of the service TBI provides,'' said Mr.

Socol.

"TBI would not have provided the capacity if we knew they were going to provide voice service.

"We are very much in agreement with Cable & Wireless on this issue. What Logic is doing is illegal. We heavily advocated that Government make the ruling that Logic cease to provide the LogicPhone service. They are a data service provider, and have tried to characterise voice services as "enhanced data''.'' He claimed that BTC (Logic's sister company) was seeking a roundabout way to enter the long-distance market with minimal investment. BTC was another applicant when TBI was awarded a long-distance licence in 1997.

"They are essentially riding on our coattails,'' Mr. Socol claimed.

TeleBermuda sides with C&W "We made a major commitment to Bermuda with a $50 million investment in infrastructure.'' He recognised it was a difficult issue from the public perspective, who was primarily concerned with cost. "There are so many variables which are at large -- the cost reduction is a small part of the issue,'' he said.

"Measures need to be taken to open up the market further, but we are not there yet.'' And he admitted that TeleBermuda had never returned a profit because of the company's heavy investment in infrastructure. The company's debts total some $13 million. TeleBermuda began its operations with satellite links and then laid a high-capacity cable soon after. Mr. Socol said he was unaware of plans for Logic to buy TeleBermuda, saying the company "would need a big wallet to do so''.