There is growing speculation that more job losses could be announced at Nortel's Northern Ireland operation.

This follows an announcement by the telecommunications company last month that it was making more redundancies worldwide.

On Tuesday a spokesman for the firm said they were assessing the impact of the decision on the County Antrim factory, but that the outcome would be communicated to the workforce first.

In the last two years more than 1,000 jobs have been cut at the company's Monkstown plant in Newtownabbey as a result of the recession hitting technology companies.

Nortel: a market leader in fibre optics

The plant makes telecommunications transmission equipment and has been a market leader in the provision of fibre optics.

The Newtownabbey operation is Nortel's largest optical systems house in Europe. Last year the company won the Northern Ireland Exporter of the Year Award.

The company is a subsidiary of the Canadian-owned global hi-tech corporation which operates in 100 countries.