COLT Telecom Group
Encyclopedia
Colt Technology Services (officially Colt Group S.A, formerly COLT Telecom) is a telecommunications, IT managed services
and data centre services company providing services to city-based large enterprise, small and midsize business and wholesale carriers throughout 21 countries in Europe
. The group is listed on the London Stock Exchange
and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index
.
with funds provided by Fidelity Investments
as City Of London
Telecommunications. The company began to construct a telecoms network in London. In 1993 it was awarded a licence to compete with British Telecom and Cable and Wireless in voice and data transmission. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange
in 1996. The group later expanded into Europe, building networks in major European cities over the next 10 years. In 2001 Fidelity Investments
helped the Company to raise a further £400m to finance its future activities. In 2005 the company reached its first year of positive cash flow, and in 2007 its first year of profit. In April 2009 Colt completed an Open Offer raising €199.1m (including a €9.7m foreign exchange gain) before expenses with the issue of 211.0 million shares.In 2010 Colt rebranded from COLT Telecom to Colt Technology Services, deleting the acronyms of City Of London
Telecommunications to reflect its paneuropean nature. Since then the company now describes itself as an ‘information delivery platform’ rather than a telco, to describe its move towards selling more integrated compute and network services. In May 2011 Colt acquired a majority shareholding in MarketPrizm, a provider of low latency market data and trading infrastructure services.
, United Kingdom
, France
, Spain
, Italy
, Switzerland
, Netherlands
, Belgium
, Austria
, Sweden
, Denmark
, Portugal
, Ireland
, Luxembourg
, United States
, and India
. The Company is registered in Luxembourg
, but its main centre of operations is based in the United Kingdom
.
In 2011 Colt organised into three customer facing business units: Colt Enterprise Services, Colt Communication Services and Colt Data Centre Services. Two other service units support the customer facing arms: Infrastructure Services and Business Services.
, broadcast
and media
, legal and government bodies.
, Voice
, Managed Services
and Data Center
services to major enterprises, small and medium sized businesses and wholesale customers. Colt operates a 35,000km network that includes Metropolitan Area Networks
(MANs) in 39 major European cities with direct fibre
connections into 17,000 buildings and 19 ISO 27001 certified Colt Data Center
s (located in 10 countries), as well as connecting a further 85 cities including New York
, Boston
, Newark
and Chicago
in the USA and Central and Eastern European countries.
Colt’s Solutions portfolio can be split into the following categories – Data Centre Solutions, Small & Medium Business Solutions, Carrier & Reseller Solutions, Enterprise Solutions.
). Since May 2011 these Modular Data Centres are available in 125m2, 250m2, 375m2 or 500m2 increments, TierI to TierIV resilience options and different power ranges up to 3,000w/m2.
, business email
and security
through to PC backup
and Voice over IP (VoIP).
& Collaboration.
with notably Ethernet in the First Mile
capabilities, Internet Protocol Virtual Private Networks (IPVPN)
, Internet Access
and Bandwidth services. Colt also offers Managed Services
including application hosting, infrastructure management, IT services, enterprise cloud computing
, network
and facilities management.
Colt provides a broad portfolio of voice solutions, including Voice over IP (VoIP) and non-VoIP services, Intelligent Network (IN)
services, customer contact solutions, white label products and network partnering.
Colt is a Managed Services
provider: Colt manages and assumes responsibility for providing a defined set of IT services to their clients. Colt is also a Cloud Computing
provider. In September 2009 Colt Group, led by its CIO Mark Leonard set out to become a leader in managed services, seeing this as the future for the company. Amongst the services it expected to offer its clients were secure cloud computing. To prove a point Leonard and his team set out to improve their own IT infrastructure using the technologies and offerings they would offer clients of Colt.Since then Colt has launched throughout 2010 new storage services and Enterprise Cloud capabilities with EMC, TIBCO, Unisys and VMware including vCloud Datacentre Services, after enhancing its internal infrastructure through virtualisation and integration of computing assets, using vCloud Datacenter Services themselves.
Managed services
Managed services is the practice of transferring day-to-day related management responsibility as a strategic method for improved effective and efficient operations inclusive of Production Support and lifecycle build/maintenance activities...
and data centre services company providing services to city-based large enterprise, small and midsize business and wholesale carriers throughout 21 countries in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. The group is listed on the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index
FTSE 250 Index
The FTSE 250 Index is a capitalisation-weighted index consisting of the 101st to the 350th largest companies on the London Stock Exchange. Promotions to and demotions from the index take place quarterly in March, June, September and December...
.
History
Colt was founded in 1992 by Jim HynesJames P. Hynes
James P. Hynes is the founder of COLT Group, one of the United Kingdom's largest telecommunications businesses.-Career:Brought up in the Bronx borough of New York and educated at Iona College and Adelphi University, Jim Hynes initially worked at Chase Manhattan as a Vice President after taking up...
with funds provided by Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Investments
FMR LLC or Fidelity Investments is an American multinational financial services corporation one of the largest mutual fund and financial services groups in the world. It was founded in 1946 and serves North American investors. Fidelity Ventures is its venture capital arm...
as City Of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
Telecommunications. The company began to construct a telecoms network in London. In 1993 it was awarded a licence to compete with British Telecom and Cable and Wireless in voice and data transmission. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
in 1996. The group later expanded into Europe, building networks in major European cities over the next 10 years. In 2001 Fidelity Investments
Fidelity Investments
FMR LLC or Fidelity Investments is an American multinational financial services corporation one of the largest mutual fund and financial services groups in the world. It was founded in 1946 and serves North American investors. Fidelity Ventures is its venture capital arm...
helped the Company to raise a further £400m to finance its future activities. In 2005 the company reached its first year of positive cash flow, and in 2007 its first year of profit. In April 2009 Colt completed an Open Offer raising €199.1m (including a €9.7m foreign exchange gain) before expenses with the issue of 211.0 million shares.In 2010 Colt rebranded from COLT Telecom to Colt Technology Services, deleting the acronyms of City Of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
Telecommunications to reflect its paneuropean nature. Since then the company now describes itself as an ‘information delivery platform’ rather than a telco, to describe its move towards selling more integrated compute and network services. In May 2011 Colt acquired a majority shareholding in MarketPrizm, a provider of low latency market data and trading infrastructure services.
Organisation
Colt has offices in the following countries: GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. The Company is registered in Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...
, but its main centre of operations is based in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
In 2011 Colt organised into three customer facing business units: Colt Enterprise Services, Colt Communication Services and Colt Data Centre Services. Two other service units support the customer facing arms: Infrastructure Services and Business Services.
Colt Enterprise Services
The Colt Enterprise Services business unit serves the needs of multinational and large national organisations typically with more than 1,000 employees. Sectors served include financial servicesFinancial services
Financial services refer to services provided by the finance industry. The finance industry encompasses a broad range of organizations that deal with the management of money. Among these organizations are credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies,...
, broadcast
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
and media
Media (communication)
In communications, media are the storage and transmission channels or tools used to store and deliver information or data...
, legal and government bodies.
Colt Communication Services
The Colt Communication Services serves the needs of other operators by providing access to Colt’s European network and data centres. Through Colt’s extended network of 400 channel partners and 200 resellers it also serves midsize businesses typically with 30 to 1,000 employees.Colt Data Centre Services
The Colt Data Centre Services business unit was launched in 2010 to deliver an innovation of the company, modular data centres, available on a Colt site or a customer site in Europe.]Products and services
Colt specialises in providing data computing DataData (computing)
In computer science, data is information in a form suitable for use with a computer. Data is often distinguished from programs. A program is a sequence of instructions that detail a task for the computer to perform...
, Voice
Telephony
In telecommunications, telephony encompasses the general use of equipment to provide communication over distances, specifically by connecting telephones to each other....
, Managed Services
Managed services
Managed services is the practice of transferring day-to-day related management responsibility as a strategic method for improved effective and efficient operations inclusive of Production Support and lifecycle build/maintenance activities...
and Data Center
Data center
A data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems...
services to major enterprises, small and medium sized businesses and wholesale customers. Colt operates a 35,000km network that includes Metropolitan Area Networks
Metropolitan area network
A metropolitan area network is a computer network that usually spans a city or a large campus. A MAN usually interconnects a number of local area networks using a high-capacity backbone technology, such as fiber-optical links, and provides up-link services to wide area networks and the...
(MANs) in 39 major European cities with direct fibre
Optical fiber cable
An optical fiber cable is a cable containing one or more optical fibers. The optical fiber elements are typically individually coated with plastic layers and contained in a protective tube suitable for the environment where the cable will be deployed....
connections into 17,000 buildings and 19 ISO 27001 certified Colt Data Center
Data center
A data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems...
s (located in 10 countries), as well as connecting a further 85 cities including New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Newark
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in the USA and Central and Eastern European countries.
Solutions
Colt provides solutions that help with cost control, risk mitigation, speed to market and business transformation.Colt’s Solutions portfolio can be split into the following categories – Data Centre Solutions, Small & Medium Business Solutions, Carrier & Reseller Solutions, Enterprise Solutions.
Data Centre Solutions
Colt provides modular data centres since 2010 which are deployed in 4 months and power efficient (1.21 PUE - Power Usage EffectivenessPower usage effectiveness
Power usage effectiveness is a measure of how efficiently a computer data center uses its power; specifically, how much of the power is actually used by the computing equipment ....
). Since May 2011 these Modular Data Centres are available in 125m2, 250m2, 375m2 or 500m2 increments, TierI to TierIV resilience options and different power ranges up to 3,000w/m2.
Small and Medium Business Solutions
Colt’s SMB solutions are delivered indirect by the company's channel partners in Europe and consist in flexible suites of services like Smart Office,a modular suite covering needs for InternetInternet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, business email
Email
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
and security
Security
Security is the degree of protection against danger, damage, loss, and crime. Security as a form of protection are structures and processes that provide or improve security as a condition. The Institute for Security and Open Methodologies in the OSSTMM 3 defines security as "a form of protection...
through to PC backup
Backup
In information technology, a backup or the process of backing up is making copies of data which may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form is back up in two words, whereas the noun is backup....
and Voice over IP (VoIP).
Carrier and Reseller Solutions
To address their own end-customer demands, operators and value-added resellers complete their IT & network infrastructure footprint as well as their offering capabilities with Colt's Voice Interconnect, White-Label product, Backbone and Access Solutions.Enterprise Solutions
Colt focuses on 3 enterprise solutions: Managed Networking, Managed IT Infrastructure and Services and Unified CommunicationsUnified communications
Unified communications is the integration of real-time communication services such as instant messaging , presence information, telephony , video conferencing, data sharing , call control and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified...
& Collaboration.
Product portfolio
Colt’s Data services include EthernetEthernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
with notably Ethernet in the First Mile
Ethernet in the First Mile
Ethernet in the first mile refers to using one of the Ethernet family of computer network protocols between a telecommunications company and a customer's premise. From the customer's point of view it is their "first" mile, although from the access networks' point of view it is known as the "last...
capabilities, Internet Protocol Virtual Private Networks (IPVPN)
Virtual private network
A virtual private network is a network that uses primarily public telecommunication infrastructure, such as the Internet, to provide remote offices or traveling users access to a central organizational network....
, Internet Access
Internet access
Many technologies and service plans for Internet access allow customers to connect to the Internet.Consumer use first became popular through dial-up connections in the 20th century....
and Bandwidth services. Colt also offers Managed Services
Managed services
Managed services is the practice of transferring day-to-day related management responsibility as a strategic method for improved effective and efficient operations inclusive of Production Support and lifecycle build/maintenance activities...
including application hosting, infrastructure management, IT services, enterprise cloud computing
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
, network
Network management
Network management refers to the activities, methods, procedures, and tools that pertain to the operation, administration, maintenance, and provisioning of networked systems....
and facilities management.
Colt provides a broad portfolio of voice solutions, including Voice over IP (VoIP) and non-VoIP services, Intelligent Network (IN)
Intelligent network
The Intelligent Network , is the standard network architecture specified in the . It is intended for fixed as well as mobile telecom networks...
services, customer contact solutions, white label products and network partnering.
Colt is a Managed Services
Managed services
Managed services is the practice of transferring day-to-day related management responsibility as a strategic method for improved effective and efficient operations inclusive of Production Support and lifecycle build/maintenance activities...
provider: Colt manages and assumes responsibility for providing a defined set of IT services to their clients. Colt is also a Cloud Computing
Cloud computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network ....
provider. In September 2009 Colt Group, led by its CIO Mark Leonard set out to become a leader in managed services, seeing this as the future for the company. Amongst the services it expected to offer its clients were secure cloud computing. To prove a point Leonard and his team set out to improve their own IT infrastructure using the technologies and offerings they would offer clients of Colt.Since then Colt has launched throughout 2010 new storage services and Enterprise Cloud capabilities with EMC, TIBCO, Unisys and VMware including vCloud Datacentre Services, after enhancing its internal infrastructure through virtualisation and integration of computing assets, using vCloud Datacenter Services themselves.