Worldcom Ireland will be generating annual revenues of $150 million (£101 million ) by 2002, its chief executive Mr Sean Melly forecast yesterday. He was speaking after the announcement that WorldCom and MCI had completed its merger.

MCI WorldCom as it is now known, is the fourth biggest telecommunications company in the world. The deal was worth $37 billion and its annual revenues will be about $30 billion.

MCI has a small physical presence in Ireland, employing five people, but its revenues - on both inbound and outbound telecoms traffic - are worth around $10 million per annum. This comprises traffic it delivers to Ireland and then passes to Telecom Eireann for delivery and traffic it takes out of the country from Telecom.

Mr Melly said the merger would have the effect of immediately doubling WorldCom's annual revenues, because his company's revenues from Ireland are also currently at around $10 million per year.

Mr Melly said WorldCom would invest $20 million this year, building and upgrading its facilities in Ireland. This included building a new public switch. The company has laid fibre to the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) and will extend it to East Point Business Park, eventually moving on to other business parks.

Speaking of MCI's current business in Ireland, he said Telecom currently sends 20 million minutes of traffic per year to the US which it passes to MCI for delivery. WorldCom/MCI will in turn pass 40 million minutes of traffic to Telecom for delivery in Ireland. MCI customers include Beare Stearns, Xilinx and Iona Technologies.

Asked whether WorldCom would bid for Cablelink, Mr Melly said they would look at it. However, he said WorldCom would not be interested in bidding unless it had a joint venture partner with cable television experience.