FORM 6-K
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
Report of Foreign Issuer
Pursuant to Rule 13a-16 or 15d-16 of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
For the month of November 2004
COLT TELECOM GROUP plc
(Translation of Registrant's Name into English)
Beaufort House
15 St. Botolph Street
London
EC3A 7QN
England
_________________________________
(Address of Principal Executive Offices)
(Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant files or will file annual
reports under cover of Form 20-F or Form 40-F.)
Form 20-F..X... Form 40-F.....
(Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant by furnishing the information
contained in this Form is also thereby furnishing the information to the
Commission pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934)
Yes ..... No ..X...
(If "Yes" is marked, indicate below the file number assigned to the Registrant
in connection with Rule 12g3-2(b): 82- ________)
This Form 6-K shall be deemed to be incorporated by reference in the
Registrant's Registration Statement on Form F-3 (Reg. No.333-05972), in the
Registrant's Registration Statement on Form S-8 (Reg. No.333-8362)
10 November 2004
COLT DELIVERS NEXT STAGE OF INNOVATION
WITH HIGH SPEED LAN-TO-LAN SERVICES
New European firsts with ultra-high speed switched Ethernet and IP-over-Ethernet
In line with COLT's commitment to deliver innovative services, outlined in its
'Future in Focus' strategic direction, COLT today (10 November 2004)
strengthened its lead in Ethernet networking with three new services that
support LAN-to-LAN connectivity across Europe more simply and cost effectively
than previously possible.
COLT is first in Europe to offer a meshed Ethernet VPN; an ultra-high speed,
feature-rich IP-over-Ethernet service and a hub & spoke solution that extends
across cities and countries. These services would not be possible without the
extensive, modern fibre network, including last-mile access to the building,
which COLT operates across Europe's 32 key business centres.
COLT believes that it is only through developments in Ethernet that the telecoms
industry can respond to customers' needs for on-demand applications, data
back-up and consolidation of multiple networks. With its ability to facilitate
bandwidth upgrades in days rather than weeks, Ethernet is able to link office
networks and related data centre facilities together simply and seamlessly in a
virtual local area network (LAN) environment - liberating businesses from
geographical constraints and providing affordable bandwidth on-demand to support
their growing business.
By creating services that put Ethernet at the core of the communications
infrastructure, COLT is challenging the more traditional, more expensive, high
maintenance wide area networking (WAN) services such as wide leased lines, ATM
and frame relay. COLT believes that Ethernet will also relegate IP VPN to a
supporting role, serving branch sites, with low bandwidth requirements, in
disparate places.
Gartner forecasts business Ethernet services in Western Europe to grow by an
average of 48% per year over the next four years as businesses extend their
operations and focus on improving business efficiency and risk management.
"Enterprises are looking for more bandwidth to accommodate a general growth in
data traffic growth and the convergence of voice and video," explains Neil
Rickard, Research VP. "Ethernet offers a cost effective, simple, scalable and
flexible solution to meet this demand. Indeed, we see Ethernet as being an
important enabler of new IT models such as utility computing, applications
services and business process outsourcing."
While it has been possible to extend the speed and simplicity of Ethernet
technology into the wide area network on a point-to-point basis, today's
announcement makes Ethernet technology available in a virtual network topology,
modified quickly and easily to accommodate the addition of new operations,
applications and related sites such as data centres.
COLT Switched Ethernet VPN:
Europe's first Switched Ethernet VPN, this service interconnects multiple sites
providing any-to-any connectivity over a virtual private network across Europe.
With burstable speeds of 300 and 600Mbps to 1Gbps, the service is ideal for
connecting large offices and data centres.
COLT Switched Gigabit IP:
Europe's first Gigabit IP over Ethernet service, this managed solution provides
routing and managed network features connecting head offices and data centres
into a corporate network. It complements an IP VPN by providing a high speed
backbone in a very cost effective way on a per megabit per second basis.
COLT LANLink Hub and Spoke:
This point-to-multi-point service combines with COLT's LANLink point-to-point
service, aggregating metro, national or international network connections into a
single Ethernet hub, at speeds of between 2 to 100Mbps in the spoke and 100Mbps
or 1Gbps in the hub. Launched in September, several customers are already
benefiting from this advanced technology.
"COLT has leveraged its best-in-class network to create a virtual LAN
environment, freeing our customers from the geographical constraints imposed
upon them by traditional network technologies," explained Paul David, managing
director, products and innovation, COLT. "By extending this simple but effective
networking protocol across the wide area, we are able to offer our customers
almost unlimited, but affordable, bandwidth on demand so that they can
consolidate their networks, establish improved data back-up facilities and
centralise their data centres for serving multiple sites, as their business
requires."
These services further strengthen COLT's lead in European Ethernet networking.
COLT's Ethernet portfolio, made possible because of the breadth and depth of
COLT's 32-MAN fibre network and last-mile access, now spans all topologies
within a range of bandwidths. COLT's Ethernet portfolio connects directly into
its 11 data centres around Europe, giving customers access to the facilities as
part of their virtual LAN. The portfolio complements COLT's other services such
as IP VPN for connecting disparate sites, based outside the COLT network.
About COLT
COLT Telecom Group plc is a leading pan-European provider of business
communications services and solutions. The company owns an integrated 20,000
kilometre network that directly connects approximately 10,000 buildings in 32
major cities in 13 countries augmented with a further 42 points of presence
across Europe and 11 Internet Solution Centres. COLT supplies customers across
the full spectrum of industry, service and government sectors with unrivalled
end-to-end network security, reliability and service.
COLT Telecom Group plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (CTM.L) and NASDAQ
(COLT). Information about COLT and its products and services can be found on the
web at www.colt.net.
For Investor enquiries:
John Doherty
Director Corporate Communications
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7390 3681
Email: jdoherty@colt-telecom.com
For Media enquiries :
Gill Maclean
Head of Corporate Communications
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7863 5314
Email: gill.maclean@colt-telecom.com
Joanna Lane
Pleon UK (for COLT Telecom)
Tel: + 44 (0) 207 298 7053
Email: jlane@pleon.com
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the
registrant has duly caused this Current Report on Form-6K to be signed on its
behalf by undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
Date: 10 November 2004 COLT Telecom Group plc
By: ___Jane Forrest___
Jane Forrest
Company Secretary