The ongoing legal dispute between Digicel and its competitors in the telecommunications field proves that the aching slow process of reform in the sector is hampering Bermuda’s ability to offer high quality and lower cost services to residents and businesses.The legal picture now seems to be clear. Digicel recently bought Internet service provider Transact and then attempted to introduce long distance service via Transact to its own customers. Under the law, this cannot be done because Digicel and Transact hold different licences. That’s why KeyTech, for example, cannot bundle BTC land line services with CableVision television, Internet service through Logic (or CableVision) and cell phone services through its M3 service, now merged with Cellular One. The intent of telecommunications reform was to enable all companies to operate under one licence, which would enable this kind of bundling to take place, to the benefit of the consumer.The worry was and is that such a licence will benefit the larger companies like KeyTech, and in the long run, Bermuda will end up with a monopoly situation, similar to the one that existed through the early 1990s when Bermuda Telephone Company was the sole domestic telephone company and Cable & Wireless had a monopoly over long distance services. The result was high prices and average service.What happened then is instructive. Entrepreneur Michael Leverock, who later started Cellular One, began a long distance callback service that cut long distance prices. It was closed down fairly quickly, but paved the way for long distance phone competition through TeleBermuda International. As a result, prices dropped and services improved. There was concern that Cable & Wireless would attempt to knock TBI out of business through “predatory pricing”, dropping prices so low that TBI would be unable to compete. Once TBI was gone, there would be little to stop C&W returning to its monopoly position and for prices to rise once again.There are similar concerns now about the single licence, with the larger companies, such as KeyTech and C&W’s successor, BermudaLink, being able to run their smaller competitors out of business. This is where Government, in its role as regulator, must come in. Over time there will inevitably be consolidation and fewer players in the market. But the critical element is to ensure that there is competition.In the past, different businesses have forced the pace of reform by doing exactly what Digicel did last week. That is not entirely legitimate, as is likely to be seen when the court case resumes this week. But their frustration is understandable. Of course, that does not make it right, as one company cannot be allowed to change the rules when others have been trying to play within them. But ultimately, Government’s failure to bring about reform that was promised almost four years ago and has still not taken place, is to blame for the current impasse.To be sure, there have been delays, some caused by the industry players themselves, as with the debate over the high cost of the regulator, but in the end, this reform should have taken place by now, and the biggest loser has been the customer.