its doors to the Governor yesterday.

Lord Waddington spent a fascinating morning touring the Cable and Wireless Centre and was then taken on the Cableship Mercury .

It was the Governor's first visit to the centre since he arrived on the Island in August.

Giving the tour were Cable and Wireless General Manager, Mr. David Escott, manager of transmissions Mr. Ronnie Baptiste and manager of switching and systems Mr. Edgar Dill.

They explained the workings of the centre and how the science of telecommunications has advanced by leaps and bounds since the first message was transmitted from Bermuda via the submarine telegraph wire in 1890.

Lord Waddington appeared knowledgeable and was certainly interested in the high-technology centre.

Cable and Wireless use a fibre optic cable which has revolutionised the telecommunications industry.

The cable is able to accommodate over 17,000 simultaneous telephone calls through the three pairs of glass fibre strands. If that becomes overloaded then the company turns to its 30 foot satellite dish for extra calls.

Bermuda is linked to the "Global Digital Highway'' which covers the world's financial centres in London, New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo. An integral part of this links the UK and the US. There is another cable which links the Island to the Caribbean.

This week the centre's satellite dish was used to beam live coverage of the Bermuda national soccer team's World Cup match with El Salvador to nine other countries, and will be used again in the match against Jamaica on Sunday.

The centre is staffed by a workforce of 132, of whom 97 percent are Bermudians.

PHONE LINKS -- Governor Lord Waddington views the high technology of the Cable and Wireless Technical Operations Centre. Explaining how the Island communicates with the rest of the world are manager of switching and systems Mr. Edgar Dill (left) and manager of transmissions Mr. Ronnie Baptiste.