Cable & Wireless Plc is about to start a pilot test of its Devonshire-based electronic commerce facility using six companies.

The facility will be the third in a series of six hubs the company is building worldwide as part of its international electronic commerce strategy. Currently the UK and US facilities are in operation.

Other facilities are being built in Hong Kong, in Sydney, Australia and in Bahrain. The company will officially announce its specialised international Web-Commerce product this September in New York.

At stake are potentially billions of dollars of merchant transactions conducted over the Internet. Bermuda will be the offshore hub in the network.

Andrew Gray, Cable & Wireless regional manager for electronic commerce, said the company set up its Bermuda system for a cost of $1.6 million at the Devonshire teleport earlier this year.

He said plans are for six companies to go live as a pilot test of the facility. Cable & Wireless is currently in negotiations with The Royal Gazette which currently has an Internet site carrying news stories from the current edition. The new Royal Gazette site will sell content from previous issues as part of its Internet product, he said. Other companies, which he didn't name, will be a mix of international and local companies looking to sell products and services on the Internet. The test sites will be operational this month.

As part of its strategy Cable & Wireless is licensing local resellers to create Internet sites and provide other related services to customers of its Web-Commerce product.

The company has licensed Bermuda Microsystems locally and is looking for another reseller so customers will have a choice. Cable & Wireless will host Internet merchant sites process billing and payment transactions through regional banks in the Caribbean and Bermuda.