LONDON -- COLT, a leading European provider of business communications, today announced a three-year contract with iBAHN, global broadband specialists to the hotel industry, which will boost the performance of its network across Europe. iBAHN is moving to an ethernet-based service to take advantage of the flexibility, simplicity and cost effective benefits that the latest developments in Ethernet bring to wide area networking.

Over the next 18 months, COLT will provide connectivity to iBAHN from several hundred top hotel sites in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Netherlands, and Denmark, primarily with COLT Ethernet Hub and Spoke, supplemented by COLT IP VPN Corporate for the more geographically disperse sites. COLT's unmanaged CPE service enables iBAHN to manage the network themselves and the allocation of a new network Point of Presence in Frankfurt provides the additional resilience required.

Graeme Powell, Managing Director Europe iBAHN, commented: "The quality of our service is a key differentiator for iBAHN - our service affords business travellers and conference organisers the highest standards in network security and reliability to allow them to continue working as if at the office. COLT's reputation for providing high quality services as well as its flexibility in developing a service that we could manage ourselves persuaded us that they are the right partner for us."

Jean-Yves Charlier, Chief Executive Officer, COLT, added: "Our commitment to delivering the highest standards in customer service across Europe is reflected by iBAHN's decision to appoint us as their network provider. We are able to offer a higher degree of network resilience and intelligence, allowing iBAHN to benefit from the latest advances in Ethernet technology. iBAHN is able to manage the network themselves whilst simultaneously being able to tap into additional support from COLT as required."

Colt Technology Services Group Ltd