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Press Release -- August 23rd, 2010
Source: Colt Group
Tags: Ethernet, Exchange, Low Latency

Key milestone in the race to zero latency: financial institutions can now exploit low latency of 4.22 milliseconds between London to Frankfurt

Colt sets a new record for connecting European trading

23 August 2010

Colt, the leading business communications and IT managed services provider, announced today it has enhanced its FastNet Ultra portfolio by introducing two new trading routes connecting key European financial centres.

The new London to Frankfurt route offers a measured latency 4.22ms, while Colt’s new Paris to Brussels route has a latency of 2.65ms. These latencies are significantly lower than those associated with other offerings in the market.  Colt has achieved this by building two new, direct fibre routes and then applying its next generation technology to ensure the fastest possible transmission.

Structural changes in financial markets as a result of regulatory changes under MiFID have encouraged the rapid development and growth of High Frequency Trading techniques driven by powerful computer programmes, or algorithms, that enable ever faster trade transactions to take place.  This evolution of trading has seen technology and networks become key differentiators for financial institutions in this extremely competitive sector.

Terry Quigley, Head of Industry Practices at Colt, said “When it comes to succeeding in the financial markets, technology – including the underpinning network – is what drives competitive advantage. Colt addresses the need to be ahead of the game with its FastNet Ultra Portfolio. By offering these new, significantly improved routes and combining them with SLAs that guarantee constant and predictable low latency, Colt can now take European traders to the next level of competition.”

The Colt Fastnet Ultra portfolio is a range of services launched early this year [click here to read announcement] specifically designed for the needs of Colts financial customers, which include Europe’s top 25 stock exchanges, hedge funds, central banks, market data providers and financial services organisations. FastNet Ultra provides ultra low latency connectivity, new fast trading routes, proximity hosting services and exchange & multilateral trading facilities (MTF) connectivity services.

Colt continues to invest heavily in its pan-European next generation network, capable of delivering up to 1.6Tbps capacity between cities. Using leading-edge technology from Infinera, based on its unique photonic integrated circuits, the Fastnet Ultra portfolio delivers high capacity, low latency Ethernet services between key trading locations across Europe at a significantly lower latency than what is currently available in the market.

About Colt

Colt is Europe’s leading information delivery platform, enabling its customers to share, process and store their vital business information.  Colt is an established leader in delivering integrated networking and IT managed services to major organisations, midsized businesses and wholesale customers. Colt operates a 13-country, 25,000km network that includes metropolitan area networks in 34 major European cities with direct fibre connections into 16,000 buildings and 19 Colt data centres.

Colt is listed on the London Stock Exchange (COLT). Information about Colt and its services can be found at www.colt.net



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