European Roundup: Colt, Sea Fibre, VTLWavenet, Surf, Alcatel-Lucent

February 19th, 2013 by · Leave a Comment

As Metro Connect get started down in Miami, here’s a quick look at some news from the European front from Colt, Sea Fibre, VTLWaveNet, and Alcatel-Lucent:

Colt announced this morning that it is now offering fully integrated, cloud-based Unified Communications in 13 countries. The pan-European network operator has spent much of the last few years expanding its managed services and cloud-based capabilities, looking to take a bigger bite out of the enterprise market. Colt seems well positioned right now to take on the many incumbent operators in the enterprise space, as few of them have Colt’s reach and most have other things to worry about holding of the wrong end of the voice/SMS revenue stick.

Sea Fibre Networks has expanded its fiber footprint to the east, bringing an endpoint all the way over in Frankfurt online. Since putting its CeltixConnect cable in service between Britain and Ireland, the operator has been focusing on its terrestrial on-ramps beyond Dublin and London to Amsterdam, now Frankfurt, and with connectivity to Paris expected to follow. In Frankfurt they gain access to DE-CIX as well as all the major data center providers that have put down roots there.

VTLWaveNet, the wholesale fiber arm of what remains of the Viatel group, is expanding its footprint in the UK. They’ve added three new PoPs in London: the London Stock Exchange plus Telecity Group’s Powergate and Telehouse West facilities. VTLWaveNet’s assets remain one of the most likely targets out there for some fiber consolidation, but it’s interesting to see them on offense these days.

The UK regional fiber operator Surf Telecoms won a four year contract in the education vertical.  They’ll be providing WAN services to Cornwall College in support of distance learning.  The infrastructure provides at least 100Mbps to each of 13 facilities in Cornwall, Devon, and Worcestershire, with 1Gbps where needed.  Surf runs fiber in England’s southwest plus southern Wales.

And Alcatel-Lucent won a key deal in its backyard, helping Belgacom’s network expansion. The Belgian incumbent will be deploying the Franco-American vendor’s 7950 XRS core routers in order to handle traffic growth from video and the cloud. Alcatel-Lucent introduced the XRS last May, and Belgacom has been a longstanding partner across many product lines of course.

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Categories: Fiber Networks · Telecom Equipment · Undersea cables · Unified Communications

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