A GWENT telecommunications firm is making its voice heard loud and clear across the Atlantic after securing a major deal.

Newport-based Silver Telecom has won its first major contract from the USA and is looking to build on this success.

The deal is said to be all the more exciting for the Imperial Park-based firm as it has been sealed at a time when there is a global slump in telecoms.

And the effects of the September 11 terrorists outrage on New York is also affecting all spheres of business in United States.

Silver Telecom, which has doubled its workforce in the past year and plans to do the same this year, says its customer is a leading West Coast telecommunications development company.

The US-firm is said to have chosen the Silver Telecom circuits because of the clear technical advantages that they offer over anything else in the market.

ST's new customer is active in the burgeoning voice over internet protocol. The process allows telephone calls to be made over the internet rather than by using the conventional telephone network.

Making calls in this way significantly reduces the cost of telephone calls for business and private customers.

The market for the technology is forecast to be worth over £5bn within three years. Silver Telecom marketing manager Chris Binnie said: "We are very active in the Far East where we have over 30 customers using our products but we are particularly excited about this latest order as it opens a completely new market for us.

"The USA customer is initially taking 1,000 units for field trials but we are expecting follow on orders worth £500,000 a year when they reach full volume. " This is on top of the £10m orders we are predicting from our existing far eastern customers."

*PICTURED: Chris Binnie with the device that cuts the cost of phone calls via the Internet