A new wireless home telephone and high speed Internet service from Cellular One has come under the scrutiny of the Ministry of Telecommunications and E-Commerce after complaints that the company does not have the proper licence to offer Internet access.

Cellular One began offering Internet service in October 2003, however, an upgrade of its mobile network to a third-generation high-speed data network led to last Thursday?s launch of wireless fixed home telephone service as well as a much higher speed of wireless Internet service.

The company priced its unlimited Internet access ? with speeds that it said were in excess of that offered currently be DSL providers ? at $89 per month.

The price for wireless home phone service was set at $59 per month and included unlimited local calls, free voice mail, call forwarding, caller ID and three-way calling. Customers who subscribed to both phone and Internet for $119 per month were also promised ten percent off their monthly cellular package.

This newspaper understands that following the huge weekend advertising blitz for the product called OneHome, the Ministry received a number of complaints and is now looking into whether Cellular One is operating within its license.

Cellular One is considered a B licensee which means that they are licensed to provide cell phone services and data services, but they are not licensed as an Internet Service Providers.

A spokesman for the Ministry said: ?There might be some issues with interpretation [of the licence and we will be dealing with that.?

Michael Leverock, Cellular One?s chief operating officer, said yesterday that it was too early to make a statement on the situation. He did say, however, that he was in discussions with various groups in order to sort out the situation.

At Press time, Cellular One stores were continuing to offer the OneHome service to customers.