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Colt, which officially launched in Ireland in February of this year, has been operating here since late 2000 and offers a range of telecoms services including frame relay, leased lines, ATM and international voice. Around IEP25 million has been invested by the Colt Telecom Group in its Irish operation to date.
Colt Telecom in Ireland currently offers its access services in Dublin 1, 2, 3 and 4, and along the M50 corridor. It has also established a data centre on the Long Mile Road in Dublin, which will be officially launched at the end of the month.
According to managing director for Ireland, Gary Keogh, the company has more than 20 corporate customers for its access services, most of which are financial companies.
"We have connected a number of key corporate customers to the Colt pan-European network. This fibre-optic broadband network operates in 27 cities across 11 European countries," commented Keogh. Colt Telecom plans to add at least another five cities, including Oslo and Lisbon, to the network by the end of 2001.
"The fact that we have our own pan-European infrastructure combined with our very strong service level agreements have been key differentiators in this market," added Keogh.
Although Colt's services are initially only available in the Dublin region, Keogh said the company is in discussions with other operators and the Irish government about the feasibility of rolling-out its offerings nationwide.
Colt's data centre in Dublin currently has three customers and Keogh told ElectricNews.net that it is in discussions with several other companies to sign up to its fully managed services. The centre is currently 25,000 square feet, but Colt plans to increase the space available, depending on market conditions, to 100,000 square feet by the end of 2002.
In addition, Keogh said that the company will be offering voice services from mid-October. Targeted at the business market, the services will be "aggressively priced" and will be either over its own network or use carrier pre-select from Eircom.
Colt is also in discussions with Eircom regarding the provision of high-speed Internet services using Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology.
"We have 15,000 DSL customers in the UK and we want to offer the same service to the corporate market in Ireland," said Keogh. "However, this will depend on Eircom's pricing structure and its roll-out plans."
Although Colt is seen as one of Europe's leading telecoms operators, like most of its counterparts, Colt Telecom's share price has slumped recently and it looks set to shortly drop out of the FTSE100. The company also needs an injection of around STG500 million to complete its European network. But Keogh maintains that the company is in good shape.
"The share price doesn't reflect the strength of the company and we don't need to raise the STG500 million today. And when we do need it, we will have no difficulty in getting that money," he said. Keogh added that the Irish operation was currently on target to meet its business plan.
Colt currently employs just over 30 people in Ireland with plans to increase that number to over 40 by year-end.
Further information is available from http:// www.colt-telecom.ie.
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