COLT Announces NGN Vendors and New Multi-Service Platform Strengthens Portfolio

| Jul 15, 2008 | Business Telecom Services - Europe | Competitive Intelligence Report

| Analyst: Joel Stradling

Current Perspective: Positive
Vendor Importance: Moderate
Market Impact: Moderate

Event Summary

July 15, 2008 – COLT announces Nokia Siemens Networks and Sonus Networks as principal NGN vendors. Nokia Siemens Networks’ multi-service platform (MSP) will be deployed, and Sonus Networks’ softswitch will provide applications-enablement. Customer-demand is driving deployments, with the new MSP already available to clients in London, Paris and Frankfurt. The MSP will gradually rollout in COLT’s pan-European network over the next twelve months.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Positive on COLT’s NGN announcement, because the carrier can leverage the new equipment deployments to deliver a future-proof marketing message to customers looking to source pan-European cost-effective and scalable Layer 2 carrier Ethernet platforms and associated applications. A pragmatic customer-driven deployment roadmap will assist minimizing investment costs and at the same time put COLT in a position to achieve differentiation in terms of service performance and portfolio depth.

• Vendor Importance: Moderate to COLT, because the company needed to conclude extensive equipment vendor tests to choose two suppliers, namely Nokia Siemens and Sonus Networks, to continue the natural evolution of its legacy network to a next-generation platform. COLT also needed to inform the market of a concrete NGN rollout to prevent competitors that have been detailing their NGN plans, such as BT’s 21CN and Verizon Business’ Converged Packet Access (CPA), from gaining an edge.

• Market Impact: Moderate on the pan-European carrier Ethernet services market, because COLT is already a strong player in this area and this initiative increases pressure on competitors by giving the service provider a modern look and feel to its portfolio. End-users, including retail enterprises and other carriers, will be interested in the new NGN-style offers that COLT can bring-to-market and provision based on new equipment installations.

Recommended Competitor Actions

• Competitors can undermine COLT’s NGN announcement due to the company’s on-net geographical limitations and relatively low investment funds. Certain players that have been more active in NGN announcements, such as BT Global Services and Verizon Business, can claim that COLT is trying to catch up with other service providers that have been deploying NGN for several years already backed by greater financial clout and group synergies.

• Carriers need to be aware that COLT stands to gain a competitive advantage with its IMS-complaint network architecture. Whilst this is an emerging and immature area, the carrier is likely to gain some customer interest for supporting converged fixed/wireless traffic and FMC applications over its NGN. IMS needs to be on the roadmap in order to prevent a loss of competitive parity against COLT, and other players that are deploying IMS, such as Telefonica, Swisscom and KPN.

• It has been some time since AT&T and Verizon Business updated the market on the progress of their Carrier Ethernet and multi-service platform deployments. AT&T needs to confirm where it stands in releasing OPT-E-WAN onto the pan-European market, while Verizon Business can confirm whether its Ethernet Virtual Private LAN (EVPL) product will indeed be available in 16 European countries by 2008 year-end.

Recommended End User / Customer Actions

• Customers should consider COLT’s pan-European carrier Ethernet proposal, because the carrier has ample experience in delivering reliable offers. The latest announcement by COLT suggests that the company is investing to evolve its network to provide a future-proof experience to its end-users.

• Multinationals might want consider the carrier Ethernet offers of larger global carriers, such as Verizon Business, and Orange Business Services, because such players have greater global presence and greater NGN investment capabilities than COLT for a consistent global offer.

• Mobile operators and other carriers should certainly look to COLT for a Layer 2 data WAN partner, because the company is perhaps the most experienced in terms of installing Ethernet NNIs. Furthermore, COLT has a strong infrastructure footprint in the 13 European countries where it is present.

• Customers looking to benefit from VPLS should contact COLT and ask what plans are afoot to deploy such a solution. The current COLT any-to-any offering is based on switched Ethernet-over-SDH, which is a perfectly good technology, but some other vendors, such as AT&T, may be able to offer VPLS in a shorter time-frame in certain European locations.

CLIENTS ONLY

Current Perspective

Competitive Positives and Concerns

Recommended Vendor Actions

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