Viatel Crosses the Alps

Viatel’s European network business, VTLWaveNet, seems to be waking up from its long post-bubble slumber.  Last month they lit their French routes south of Paris, and this week they took the effort further by lighting their Geneva-Bern-Zurich route and adding a new route from Zurich south to Milan. 

Actually, given the timing of euNetworks’ buildout south through Zurich to Milan as well as their previous transactions with Viatel, I wonder if this isn’t a related effort.  It would make sense for the two to work together on low latency trading, as most other routes through the Alps are probably controlled by the competition who are after the same financial vertical revenues.  Or, it could be unrelated (anyone know?).

Viatel sold off its UK business a couple years back, leaving them with this fiber and conduit asset as well as metro coverage in eight cities.  They have been growing rapidly according to their website, but from a very low base according to filings from before they were taken private by investors led by Morgan Stanley.

I can’t help but think that Morgan Stanley has been waiting about a decade for a chance to unload this investment at last, and the M&A environment and the state of bandwidth in Europe just might be ready to oblige.

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Categories: Internet Backbones