While certain sectors of Bermuda's international business sector, namely insurance, appear to be booming all may not be rosy in other sectors.

The Island's international telecom sector - with at least three of the failed telecommunications companies, Global Crossing, Concert and Flag Telecom, calling Bermuda home - from appearances, has hit a real slump.

Take best-known Global Crossing: the company once had one and a half floors of much sought after commercial real estate in Wessex House on Reid Street and staffed up to 65 employees.

The company which is under fire from regulators and shareholders that have seen their investments disintegrate, now has three staff in its Bermuda office.

The final fate of the local office remains up in the air with Global Crossing Holdings Ltd. president Ian McLean telling The Royal Gazette that the long-term plans are unclear as the company was sold off in recent weeks.

For the time being the office is a small back office by the exit stairwell on the second floor.

But there is a stark reminder of better times for the company with a large front office filled with discarded office chairs lined up in rows, boxes of phones and a discarded rolodex, a trolley of old binders.

A sign on the door tells visitors to go to the back office and ring a door bell outside the now much-smaller office space.

Mr. McLean indicated however that a tenant had been found to sub-let the front office from Global Crossing.

Another example of the turn of tides is the Concert story.

The venture opened last year, with great fanfare and promise of up to 150 jobs, including training opportunities for Bermudians. Then chief executive officer David Dorman, at the opening of the Bermuda headquarters, told The Royal Gazette the local office had 60 people on site, but would be looking to more than double that number.

The company set up in the John Swan building on Victoria Street in some and fitted the space with the latest in technology.

But when Concert went belly up the space was suddenly vacant and as many as 37 Bermudians were said to be out of work.

Landlord Sir John Swan told The Royal Gazette that the space had new tenants months later but a small part of the space had still not been rented out.

Another Bermuda- based company, manufacturing conglomerate Tyco International, has also hit hard times. It is believed that the office, which at least at one time was a large, ornately decorated wing on the second floor of the Zurich Centre, Pitts Bay Road may have downsized.

Calls to the local office were referred to the Tyco office in New York which was contacted several times but did not respond to questions from The Royal Gazette.

An attempt to visit the Tyco offices, which are on the second floor , also proved unsuccessful with a Zurich Centre security guard refusing to even allow The Royal Gazette to telephone the Tyco office from the security desk.

The Royal Gazette was unable to determine if the office had downsized.