NTL, the US communications group, has no plans to proceed with a proposed £20 million sterling (€33 million) investment in Northern Ireland first announced more than two years ago, according to industry sources.
The cable television group unveiled plans in 1999 to create 874 additional jobs by 2003 at a new call centre in Belfast.
Details of the investment boost for the North were unveiled by the then Secretary of State, Dr Mo Mowlam, who praised the group as Northern Ireland's biggest single investor.
The investment was seen as a major coup for Northern Ireland. At the time Dr Mowlam claimed the decision by NTL to locate the call centre in Belfast was a result of a massive public relations drive by the development board in the US during 1998.
The North's Industrial Development Board had offered the American group financial assistance packages totalling £3.8 million towards the cost of the project.
It is understood that NTL has made no approaches to the Industrial Development Board to take up the offer during the last two years.
The agency confirmed that the offer of financial assistance had been made but would not comment further.
A spokeswoman for agency said: "The Industrial Development Board offers of assistance are performance related and payment is subject to conditions. If any conditions are not met in the agreement, no assistance is able to be drawn down by the company."
NTL first came to the North in 1996, with promises to invest up to £1 billion sterling in the market and deliver more competitive telecommunication charges.
The company planned to have access to 80 per cent of homes in Northern Ireland by 2003. However it currently services just the Greater Belfast area and Derry and has halted all its construction projects. The group is struggling to reduce an £11 billion debt and has also postponed a number of construction projects in the UK and Ireland.
Meanwhile the University of Ulster plans to create 100 high-tech jobs at its Jordanstown campus in a new £2.5 million centre for fledgling engineering companies.
The Technology and Engineering Innovation Centre, to be based at a 20,000 sq ft site at the university, will allow start-up companies to benefit from the university's technological expertise and research facilities.
The University of Ulster has already established similar centres at its Coleraine and Magee campuses and at Springvale in Belfast.
