One of the Island's leading telephone companies has recorded a 33 percent rise in the number of incoming calls received on its lines in recent weeks -- largely due to a blitz for new business by call-back firm GlobalTel.

Cable and Wireless said it had not received a huge amount of new business since Government banned the overseas telephone companies -- which offer cheap phone calls -- in mid-December.

But C&W now reports it has seen other trends, which are too significant to be mere co-incidence.

General Manager Eddie Saints said: "We are showing growth in business on last year, but we believe that has been due to the success of the Big Deal programme and our own marketing initiatives -- not the ban on call-backs.

"But what is interesting is that we see a tremendous growth in the number of inbound minutes we have recorded in the last couple of months -- we are up 33 percent, which is a huge increase "It could be many things, but I think we can confidently attribute a lot of these incoming calls to GlobalTel call-back company.

"We know that GlobalTel has had some difficulties operating and has been blitzing their customers in Bermuda with a number of calls.

"GlobalTel also appears to have stepped up its recruitment drive since the ban, calling homes and businesses urging people to sign up.

"I think, with confidence, I can say that much of the 33 percent increase of incoming calls is purely down to GlobalTel's own activities.

"And the January projection is also showing strong in-bound traffic. We are a third up on this time last year.'' Mr. Saints said evidence so far showed that the ban had had very little impact on the continued operation of call-back companies in Bermuda.

He said if the ban had suppressed their activities, Cable and Wireless would have noticed greater growth in business.

"Call-back is still prevalent in our market,'' he added.

"We would have expected more growth. We are above last year, but there has not been the sort of up-lift we would have expected had the call-back activities been curtailed.

"Put simply, so far we have not had any benefit from the ban.'' Government has been at war with GlobalTel, in particular, since it voted to outlaw overseas call-back companies.

GlobalTel still has Bermuda's number Government claims foreign call-back companies have invested nothing into the country but took away vital business from local providers.

Despite the ban, GlobalTel stepped up its recruitment drive, randomly calling homes and businesses around the Island touting for new business using an automated voice mail message.

Government has twice cut off the paging lines it uses to enable customers in Bermuda to call out, but last weekend it was back up and running again.

People on the Island believed to be assisting GlobalTel to operate here have also had equipment seized.

And Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb said she believed GlobalTel was behind a rash of false alarms made to the 911 emergency system last month by unsuspecting residents on the Island.

A number of people were anonymously paged and asked to call a series of numbers prefixed with 911. When they called the number, they were automatically connected to the emergency control room.

And Ms Webb said Government so strongly believed the false alarms were down to GlobalTel in direct response to being cut off, that their lines were ordered to be temporarily re-instated for fear the 911 lines would overload.

Investigations are being carried out by Government's telecommunications officers and a file put together for consideration by both Director of Public Prosecutions Khamisi Tokunbo and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in America, which licences all US phone companies which operate overseas.

Government is hoping if GlobalTel, and the other call-back firms Call Save and Fiber Tel, refuse to cease operating in Bermuda, they will be threatened with losing their licences by the FCC.

GlobalTel has failed to respond to any communications made by The Royal Gazette .