GlobeNet Communications, the holding company for TeleBermuda International, has increased its revenue to $13.1 million in the first six months of this year.

This is 14 percent higher than the comparable period one year ago, when it stood at $11,518. GlobeNet's net loss also improved to $0.30 per share from $1.07 per share last year.

At the end of its first full year of operation, the revenue for the whole year of 1998 was $26.72 million, an increase of $21.76 million on the $4.91 million revenue achieved from its setup in May 1997 to the end of that year.

According to Michael Kedar, chairman and chief executive officer of GlobeNet, the new growth is due to an increase in residential and corporate business at TeleBermuda.

"Revenue growth is due primarily to an increase in voice traffic at GlobeNet's wholly owned subsidiary, TeleBermuda International Ltd,'' said Mr.

Kedar in a letter to shareholders yesterday.

"TeleBermuda has continued to build its subscriber base, both residential and commercial, and now has about 40 percent of the market for the outbound voice services in Bermuda.'' Mr. Kedar said that his company intended to continue its aggressive pursuit of a larger share of this market as well as increasing profits through pre-pay telephone cards and private lines.

GlobeNet, through its subsidiary TeleBermuda provides a full range of international telecommunications services in Bermuda through the use of its undersea fibre-optic cable system links to the US, and now carries over a third of all traffic generated in Bermuda.

TeleBermuda is currently gearing up to put in the second link in the company's network to Bermuda. The cable will run from the company's operation at Southside to Venezuela, Brazil, Florida and to New Jersey where it will close the loop with the current cable from Bermuda. The company is currently negotiating to build a 30,000 square foot operations centre at Southside for the network. The new cable is due to be completed by September 2000. The total cost of construction will be $825 million.

The company is also installing a 3,000 square foot building which will house servers for electronic commerce companies and TeleBermuda will maintain the servers for the businesses.

In his letter to shareholders, Mr. Kedar also praised the Government for keeping the market competitive and reducing the local access charges paid by international carriers. He said: "These reductions have allowed TeleBermuda to pass along substantial cost savings to its Bermuda customers while improving its own profitability.'' Mr. Kedar also spoke of GlobeNet's commitment to the expanding e-commerce industry in Bermuda. "The Government of Bermuda has actively promoted Bermuda as a business-friendly offshore location for e-commerce. GlobeNet is currently refurbishing some space in its network operating centre in Bermuda to allow it to offer co-location facilities, as well as the required bandwidth, to facilitate e-commerce activities.

"Management believes that the favourable environment fostered by recently-enacted legislation and government policies combined with the quality of telecommunications infrastructure that GlobeNet provides to Bermuda, represents an outstanding opportunity to participate in the global proliferation of e-commerce activity.'' According to the report GlobeNet completed a $30 million offer to redeem 1.5 million of its common shares, at a price of $20.40 per share. Mr. Kedar said the offer was intended to provide some liquidity to shareholders who offered support to GlobeNet through the early stages of its development. Mr. Kedar added in closing: "I would like to acknowledge the significant efforts of the Government of Bermuda in continuing to develop a workable framework for sustained and fair competition in telecommunications services.'' Michael Kedar