Change is afoot within Colt to ensure we focus better on our customers’ needs and build an organisation for unrivalled customer service. In May 2014, Colt decided to restructure into lines of business, and in November, our acquisition of the Asian service provider KVH was announced.
Now Covering Europe and Asia
In December, Colt completed our acquisition of KVH Asia, an infrastructure based service provider of networks and data centres across various Asian cities. We expect this to strengthen our position as a global provider of Network, Voice, Data Centre Services because Colt and KVH operate complementary businesses with similar technology and platforms, business models and product sets. KVH is present in several cities in Japan including Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka, and other Asian hub cities like Singapore, Hong Kong and Seoul.
KVH and Colt have a joint commitment to drive forward innovation. We are always looking for ways to improve our services and develop new solutions to address our customers’ evolving needs. As a recent demonstration of this, KVH has successfully completed the first ever field trial for 400 Gbps data transmission in Japan. This milestone, over KVH’s network between Tokyo and Osaka, solidifies our position as the number one Ethernet innovator in the Japanese market.
International multi-side projects – that’s where we are
We are now better prepared to help our Enterprise customers entering the market in Asia. Colt customers will benefit from our well-known and consistent customer engagement, guaranteed SLAs from end to end in Europe and Asia and a product set which allows them to buy under one contract, one SLA and one service description no matter from which continent services are being deployed.
Combining our strengths puts Colt and KVH in a stronger position to serve multi-national customers on a global basis. We now operate in 28 countries across Europe, Asia and in the US, with connections into over 200 cities globally and metropolitan area networks in 47 cities. We cover the rest of the world via approved network partners, that have proven to fulfil Colt’s highest standards of performance and deliver complementary coverage in countries and sub-continents where Colt does not currently have our own fibre assets.
These assets are run by the Network Services unit facilitating Colt’s competitive advantage, gained from our seamless next generation network. Our award-winning multi services platform supports Ethernet as well as IP Access and IP-VPN services, incorporating SDN principles like virtual CPEs. The Voice Services unit addresses Corporate and Reseller Voice markets with growing VoIP and IN solutions.
Colt in the Market
Latest awards reflect this great effort in driving both innovation and customer focus. In November 2014, Colt and KVH won seven of the prestigious Metro Ethernet Forum awards, including the Best Wholesale Provider in the EMEA region, as well as Best Service of the Year in APAC.
In January 2015, Gartner, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company, has recognised it among the industry’s leading vendors in all four use cases assessed in the third ‘Critical Capabilities for Pan-European Network Services’1 report.
Gartner’s research report assessed vendors’ product capabilities in four critical network services use cases: Midsize European Network, Large European Network, Multicountry Branch Network and Core City Backbone. A total of seven products/ services are rated as part of the use cases, including Ethernet Services, SIP Trunks and Managed MPLS VPNs.
Colt’s overall product score in the Gartner report was 4.13 out of 5. Specific ratings were as follows:
- Midsized European Network – Colt was rated a 4.10 out of 5 in this use case
- Large European Network – Colt was rated a 4.13 out of 5 in this use case
- Multicountry Branch Network – Colt was rated a 3.99 out of 5 in this use case
- Core City Backbone – Colt was rated a 4.54 out of 5 in this use case
Vertical Systems Group, one of the worldwide leading market research and strategic consulting firms, specialising in defensible quantification of the networking industry, have just published their “2014 Global Provider Ethernet LEADERBOARD” listing seven operators that maintain more than a 4% share of billable retail Ethernet ports outside their home country. In the second consecutive year Colt is listed as one of these worldwide leading Ethernet providers.
You can find out more about our awards on www.colt.net, by talking to your Account Executive or contact us here.
Disclaimer:
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
1 Gartner, Critical Capabilities Report for Pan-European Network Services, Neil Rickard and Katja Rudd, 14 January 2015. https://www.gartner.com/doc/2963318/critical-capabilities-network-services-paneuropean
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