International telecommunications company Global Crossing Ltd. plans on installing a multi-million dollar network monitoring operation at the former baselands in St. David's.

The company's corporate offices is at Wessex House on Reid Street. The worldwide customer care centre will also be located there as well. Global Crossing senior vice president Eugene Shutler said when fully operational the company will have about 60 staff in Bermuda.

The company is currently laying a worldwide network of digital fibre optic cable systems -- including a link through Bermuda -- so as to sell capacity to international telecommunications companies. "We operate as a Bermuda company and we are committed to being a good corporate citizen here,'' Mr. Shutler said in an interview yesterday. "We believe that the world of telecommunications is an nice fit with the idea of Bermuda as an information island.'' He said the company would also be an opportunity for Bermudians to become part of a company operating on the forefront of telecommunications technology.

From its operations centre the company will monitor traffic over its worldwide network. Global Crossing would lease a purpose-built building and install "millions of dollars'' worth of network systems, he said.

The company's backers are betting billions of dollars on the future of international telecommunications growth. The company's trans-Atlantic cable, connecting the US with the UK, Germany and the Netherlands is already complete and in use. The company has signed contracts and arranged financing to extend its network to the Americas and Asia. Mr. Shutler said the recent announcements by Government on planned legislation to help make Bermuda an offshore centre for electronic commerce only served to confirm the company's strategy.

"All of that goes to our point that people will increasingly be using electronic means to conduct commerce,'' he said. "Paper will become less important than photons.'' He said Global Crossing decided to make Bermuda its headquarters because of the low taxes and its strategic location.

He said a number of Bermuda companies had talked with the company about acquiring capacity on the network. However, he emphasised Global Crossing did not have a licence to provide such capacity. It did not sell capacity directly.

"We are a wholesaler and we have not entered into any direct sales,'' he said.

The company began building the first stage of its network a year ago last March. Mr. Shutler said the company had come a long way in a short period of time.

"We now have a public company with hundreds of millions in revenue and the opportunity to make it easier and cheaper for people to communicate,'' he said.

Atlantic Crossing went into commercial service this May. The other segments of the network are Pacific Crossing connecting the US and Japan, the Mid-Atlantic Crossing connecting the eastern US, Bermuda, and the Caribbean, and the Pan-American Crossing, connecting the western US, Central America, and the Caribbean. The Mid-Atlantic crossing is scheduled to being service in late 1999. Global Crossing also has offices in Los Angeles, Morristown, New Jersey San Franscisco, and London.