MEF’s European Service Provider of the Year Award
NEW YORK , October 20, 2008—Actelis Networks®, today announced at Light Reading’s Ethernet Expo New York that it has helped COLT, Europe’s leading supplier of business communications services, to win the Metro Ethernet Forum’s 2008 EMEA Service Provider of the Year Award for Service Innovation. This is the fourth year in a row COLT has won the prestigious award. The MEF award recognizes the CLEC’s extensive service coverage across Europe, which has been achieved in part through the deployment of Actelis’ Carrier Ethernet over Copper solutions. By leveraging Actelis’ field-proven, award-winning product family of ML600 Ethernet Access Devices (EADs), COLT has increased its footprint significantly over the last few years without undue capital or operating expenditures. Actelis’ Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM) solutions provide COLT with standards-based technology to enable Ethernet services with end-to-end Operations, Administration and Management (OAM) to all customer locations, which is crucial for maintaining fiber-like Quality of Service (QoS) and keeping operational costs down.
With faster provisioning times, greater flexibility, and new service features that enable COLT to currently deliver up to 40 Mbps of broadband Ethernet services, Actelis’ product family of ML600 EADs continues to play a major role in keeping COLT ahead of the pack by helping them to successfully deploy next-generation Ethernet services.
The contribution made by Actelis in helping prepare COLT’s submission for the MEF award was acknowledged by Dr. Alireza Mahmoodshahi, chief technology officer at COLT: “Actelis plays an important role in the delivery of COLT’s service offerings to our valued customers, enhancing our service coverage and driving forward the availability of carrier-class Ethernet services,” said Mahmoodshahi. “Actelis’ EFM products focus on cost-effectively increasing attained rate, reach, and reliability, helping COLT to meet rapidly growing customer demand for high-speed Ethernet services.”
COLT’s continuing leadership among Europe’s independent service providers of business Ethernet services was commended by Yaron Altit, Actelis’ newly appointed general manager of EMEA: “We congratulate COLT on winning the MEF’s Service Provider of the Year Award for the fourth consecutive year. COLT has been one of our most innovative and valued customers over the years, making full use of the advanced features Actelis’ EADs provide to deliver fiber-like performance and reliability over their copper infrastructure.”
COLT has Points of Presence (PoPs) in 100 European cities and Metro area networks in 34 of them. The company connects 15,000 buildings in 13 countries with its own fiber network, which is complemented by a copper local loop unbundling (ULL) program through which COLT has equipped over 600 central offices to deliver Ethernet over DSL services. This infrastructure uses Actelis’ EFM connections to extend Ethernet coverage beyond its Metro area fiber networks in 39 cities across 10 countries.
“Actelis’ EFM solution has helped COLT to easily and cost-effectively deliver the next generation of higher-rate Ethernet services without the daunting and unjustifiable fiber construction costs, resulting in tremendous growth across its Pan-European customer base,” commented Altit. “Actelis’ product offering of field-proven EADs and aggregation switches will continue to provide COLT with a cost-effective, transparent substitute for fiber, delivering what Actelis refers to as ‘The 3 R’s of EFM: Rate, Reach and Reliability.’
To learn more about Actelis and the company’s Carrier Ethernet solutions, attendees can meet with sales and product marketing representatives in Booth 224 at Light Reading’s Ethernet Expo, taking place at the Hilton New York through October 22. Additionally, Actelis will lead a speaking panel on “Carrier Ethernet Infrastructure: Solutions for Cellular & WiMax Backhaul Part II,” which starts at 2:30 p.m. ET on October 21.
About the MEF
The Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) is a global industry alliance comprising more than 145 organizations, including telecommunications service providers, cable operators, MSOs, network equipment, test vendors, labs and software manufacturers, semiconductors vendors, and testing organizations. The MEF develops technical specifications and implementation agreements to promote interoperability and deployment of Carrier Ethernet worldwide.
About COLT
COLT is a leading European service provider of business communications. COLT specializes in providing data, voice, and managed services to major businesses, SMEs, and wholesale customers. COLT operates a 13-country, 25,000km network that includes Metropolitan area networks in 34 major European cities with direct fiber connections into 15,000 buildings and 18 COLT data centres. COLT Telecom Group S.A. is listed on the London Stock Exchange (COLT). Information about COLT and its services can be found at www.colt.net.