Nortel Networks is set to hire around 750 new employees at Monkstown, Co Antrim, bringing its total workforce in Ireland to more than 3,000. The company said it needed the extra staff to help expand its global manufacturing for "optical Internet and high-speed electronics".

Optical Internet technology is seen by many industry analysts as crucial to the development of telecommunications. It permits four million Internet connections over a single fibre-optic cable.

Nortel would not confirm the precise number of new jobs at the Monkstown plant yesterday, but said a total of 1,800 new positions would be created between Paignton, in Devon, England, and the facility on the outskirts of Belfast. It is understood that the deal with the North's Industrial Development Board has not yet been signed.

Nortel Networks already employs some 1,400 at Monkstown, and a further 900 at its Galway operation. The company describes the Co Antrim operation as its largest systems house in Europe, supplying optical transport, access and switching products to public carriers building networks across the world.

"Nortel has a good history in this part of Ireland. With the two major universities, the growing supply hub for telecoms and the presence of government agencies, it will be an excellent source for the talent it requires to move its optical business forward," the company said.

Nortel is also providing Esat Telecom's new digital, fibre-optic telecommunications backbone, with local access networks, designed for both business and residential customers.

The company said yesterday it was investing an additional $400 million (€370 million) in its optical networking and components business, which it says is "booming".

"This strategic investment will expand and accelerate the development and deployment of the company's market-leading optical Internet systems," Nortel said.

The investment includes establishing a new facility in Canada for the fabrication of precision lasers and performance-defining optical components. The company said these components were critical to the creation of next generation dense wavelength division multiplexing systems.

These systems required precise production of hundreds of specific wavelengths of lasers, Nortel said.

"We're moving at web speed to meet growing customer demand for our market-leading optical Internet capabilities," said Mr John Roth, the firm's president and chief executive. "The expansion of our global optical production capacity will provide the scale needed to ensure we maintain our first mover advantage and extend our leadership in optical networking and the high performance Internet well into the new millennium.

"This isn't just about meeting customer demand, it is also about enhancing a source of long-term competitive advantage," he added.

Nortel Networks, based in Ontario, Canada, is one of the world's largest communications companies, with 1998 revenues of $17.6 billion.