which competitor BTC circulated to residents this month contained untruths.

And TeleBermuda moved to reassure customers yesterday that an additional cut in its rates was pending, with the cost of some calls to be slashed by almost 20 percent.

But the sting in the tail is that BTC does the billing for TeleBermuda's residential customers so general manager James Fitzgerald said the company had to wait for BTC to make changes in its system to allow for the cuts.

The lower prices could be in place in time for the April bill, but that depended on how swiftly the changes were made at BTC, he said.

From TeleBermuda's new headquarters in St. David's Mr. Fitzgerald said the fee cuts for consumers demonstrated the company's unwavering confidence in the Government's commitment to rate rebalancing.

And the company would proceed with its planned lower rates despite BTC's lawsuits against the Government throwing the potential cost savings for Bermudians into jeopardy, he said.

The cuts would slice between four and 25 cents off calls depending on the destination, time and day the telephone was used.

Mr. Fitzgerald gave the example of the cost of calling Ireland on weekdays between 7 and 9 a.m. or 3 and 6 p.m. or on the weekend between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. which was to be reduced from $1.31 per minute to $1.06.

He said the company had "taken strong exception'' to BTC's customer newsletter Waves which was dispersed to all houses with the latest batch of monthly bills.

He declined to pinpoint his grievances with the four-page colour advertising brochure but said the tone of it and its content were "misleading''.

"It tries to give the impression that TeleBermuda itself is going to reap some sort of benefits of this Government order for BTC to reduce its international access charges.

"But that is not the case, it's just not true.'' He said that TeleBermuda had been absorbing BTC's "exorbitant charges'' and passing savings on to customers ever since it was established, on the understanding the rates would be rebalanced "a couple of years back''.

"And that of course didn't happen, but still TeleBermuda has been keeping our charges low.'' He said that since the company first introduced competition to Bermuda's long distance market in May 1997 it had focused on delivering the best quality service supported by the lowest possible long distance rates.

"For almost two years now we have provided rates that are significantly less than our competition even without any relief from the excessive local access changes that are among the highest in the world.

"We are certainly pleased to now offer our customers these additional savings based on the Government's recent order reducing BTC's access charges.

"It is TeleBermuda's position that we will always provide the best quality service possible for our customers in Bermuda at the most competitive rates available in this market.'' A BTC spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter last night.