European service provider Colt (LSE: COLT.L) on Tuesday began offering a new 100 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) service to its business customer base, leveraging Infinera's (Nasdaq: INFN) DTN platform on its long-distance network.
This service follows a trial that the provider completed in September of 100 GbE client interfaces on Infinera systems over an 861 km route from London to Frankfurt.
Colt has plenty of network options to deliver 100 GbE service. In addition to 20 carrier-neutral data centers, Colt's long distance network combines Europe's main business markets with 39 metro networks and 18,000 on-net buildings.
Colt said that by deploying the DTN platform it will gain a number of operational benefits, including reduced costs due to the platform's smaller size and lower power consumption.
The service provider would also be able to better respond to the demand it's seeing for higher bandwidth Ethernet services like 100 GbE, particularly from wholesale carrier customers and enterprise customers in the finance and media vertical segments.
While providing more scalable Ethernet options to its demanding customer base is a top priority for the company, higher bandwidth Ethernet services like 100 GbE will also serve as a sound foundation to deliver an enhanced set of IT services, including cloud. Proof of that trend came in August when Colt purchased ThinkGrid, a cloud platform provider focused on the channel partner segment.
"As the company continues to transform from a traditional B2B telecoms operator to a provider of integrated IT and network services, enhancing our Ethernet services capabilities is key to delivering an end to end service experience that matches our customer's agenda," said Luke Broome, CTO at Colt, in a release announcing its agreement with Infinera.
In the global Ethernet market, Colt continues to be a dominant player, consistently ranking in the top five players on Vertical Systems Group's global provider Ethernet Leaderboard. Colt and others that have a dominant presence in Europe will likely face challenges due to the region's economic state.
For more:
- see the release
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