ZURICH -- COLT, a leading European provider of business communications, has signed a comprehensive local loop unbundling (LLU) agreement with Swisscom, the first alternative operator to do so since LLU was introduced in Switzerland on 1 April 2007. In the coming months, COLT will invest in upgrading its local loop infrastructure so that it can offer high quality data and converged communication services to businesses that depend on traditional copper lines.

As part of the agreement, COLT will install new ‘Ethernet in the First Mile’ technology at its unbundled exchanges. This uses the new DSL standard, G.SHDSL.bis, to enable symmetrical connectivity at up to 40Mbit/s (5.7Mbit/s per copper pair). Using this technology, COLT will provide businesses not directly connected to its fibre network with a range of innovative services that require a very high quality and symmetrical underlying network. This includes software on demand, managed storage and complex VoIP solutions.

"We want to introduce a better quality of service into the business telecoms market and raise the level of the competition," said Hans Jörg Denzler, Managing Director COLT Telecom AG Switzerland. "We also believe there should be a more effective regulatory and legal framework in place to support alternative service providers such as COLT. But our key priority is our customers and we are making the best of existing market conditions to offer them high quality communications services."

Colt Technology Services Group Ltd