Global Crossing is based in Bermuda and was formed two years ago by a financier with almost no telecommunications industry experience, but who foresaw a demand for international high-speed voice and data networks which would span continents.

To initial industry scepticism it entered a bureaucratic and slow-moving market dominated by two giants, AT&T and Cable & Wireless. Initially operating as an installer of transoceanic fibreoptic cables, Global Crossing began to sell capacity on lines itself and is currently building a massive global fibre network spanning 159 cities.

Part of this ambitious project involves current work to install a fibre network linking major European cities, of which Dublin will now become a significant part. Two large-scale transoceanic cable projects are also under way: a cable called Pacific Crossing 1 (or PC-1) to land at Tokyo, expected to be completed by December, and a recently announced South American sub-sea cable and terrestrial network, to be finished by the end of 2000.

In order to service its own cables, Global Crossing acquired cable maintenance company Global Marine, a subsidiary of Cable & Wireless, for $885 million (€865 million). It broadened its capabilities by merging in March with communications networking company, Frontier Communications, and is currently bidding against telecommunications giant Qwest for another telecommunications company, US West.

While investors have shown huge interest in Global Crossing - it was worth $26 billion within nine months of its initial public offering last year, and has been able to raise $3.5 billion in equity and debt - observers caution it has yet to complete the networks on which its fortunes ride.