yesterday it has signed up French telecom company Alcatel.

In the deal understood to be worth $700 million, Alcatel will build a South American portion of the planned telecommunications network.

The French company is to design, manufacture and install the system which is just one leg of Global Crossing's proposed network.

Once finished the entire system will span five continents and carry data, voice, video and Internet transmissions.

Under the deal Global Crossing will provide marine support to Alcatel and has received a five-year commitment of $100 million in contracting from Alcatel including any subcontracting work awarded during the construction.

This latest Alcatel deal is to replace a separate contract awarded earlier but apparently fallen through.

No one from Global Crossing returned calls to provide more details yesterday.

Global Crossing CEO Bob Annunziata issued a written statement to the media mentioning the Alcatel deal as well as the selection of Lucent Technologies to supply optical networking equipment for the network segment over land.

"These new partnerships keep our South American Crossing system on schedule towards its goal of giving businesses and consumers in Latin America's largest cities assured access to worldwide broadband communications,'' he said.

The South American network is to be installed in three phases and should be finished by April 2001 if all goes to plan.