Webb dismisses claims by GlobalTel CEO

By Ayo Johnson
(Business from 2000-10-04 Edition)

CLAIMS THAT a law against call back services in Bermuda would be against the World Trade Agreement were vigorously rejected by Telecommunications and E-Commerce minister Renee Webb.
"Nonsense. Absolute nonsense," Webb said. She was responding to comments by Steve Williams, CEO of call back operator GlobalTel.
In a Bermuda Sun story last week, Williams denounced government plans to introduce legislation specifically making call back services illegal. Government has secured the full cooperation of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in driving the service from the local telecommunications market. But the GlobalTel chief told the Bermuda Sun last week that, "There's new technology being developed everyday... we will offer any service we can if we so desire — if we are able to do it in such a way that it's legal." And he said that his company offered a "different type of call back" in jurisdictions that had banned it.
While conceding that his firm would have to comply with U.S. authorities' request to desist from offering the call back service here, Williams said that a local law would be anti-competitive and violate trade agreements of the World Trade Organization.
"The WTO cannot dictate what Bermuda's laws are," Webb countered. She said that although there was no specific legislation making call back illegal, the policy ban had been upheld by the courts, when Bermudian entrepreneur Michael Leverock's bid to offer call back embroiled him in legal battles with government. "If call back was legal in Bermuda Michael Leverock would exist," Webb said. "It doesn't take a genius to set up a call back service in Bermuda… You wouldn't need a GlobalTel."