executives at the Bermuda Telephone Co. Ltd. (BTC) puzzled.

Ms Webb has stated that after reviewing the report by the Telecommunications Commission, and despite a judgment in Supreme Court in favour of BTC, the company is still obliged to provide a connection for competitor Quantum Communications Ltd.

Ms Webb also stated that if BTC made any such move to disconnect Quantum without her consent, she was giving an advance order that it must immediately connect the company back up again to its network.

Quantum needs the connection so it can compete in the local market with incumbent BTC. The connection is necessary for both companies customers to talk to each other.

"We have no idea why we received the directive,'' BTC spokeswoman Karla Lacey-Minors said yesterday. "We are studying it.'' In a February 26 Supreme Court judgment Puisne Judge Vincent Meerabux ruled that Government did not have the authority in a ministerial order made last year forcing BTC to connect Quantum to its network. BTC claimed that was a victory and lawyers claimed that it had the right to disconnect Quantum from its network.

But in a second judgment over the same issue, but brought in as a writ by BTC over Constitutional law Mr. Justice Meerabux ruled that BTC also had a duty as a licensed telecommunications carrier to connect Quantum.

Mr. Justice Meerabux dismissed BTC's claim that The Bermuda Constitution protected the company from having to interconnect with a competitor. BTC's lawyers argued that under Section 10 of the Constitution BTC cannot be forced into an association it does not want.

Justice Meerabux ruled that BTC in being a licensed carrier had agreed to comply with the Telecommunications Act and the provisions designed to maintain order in the sector.

In a separate development another BTC writ against the Minister of Telecommunications will be heard before Mr. Justice Meerabux beginning March 31.

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