These services are the latest step in eliminating the causes of latency and aim to help COLT's trading clients achieve best possible execution in electronic trading.

COLT's FastNet Ultra portfolio will include ultra low latency connectivity using wavelength or Ethernet services, fast trading routes between key financial centres, proximity hosting services for 20 European Exchanges, and Managed Trade Fund (MTF) connectivity services. All these solutions will be supported by a guaranteed SLA ensuring a consistent level of latency and no fluctuations as a result of fixed, defined and un-contended paths through the network.

These services are based on two significant technology developments. Firstly, COLT has invested heavily in upgrading its pan-European next generation network. Using leading-edge technology from Infinera, based on its unique photonic integrated circuits, the Fastnet Ultra services deliver high capacity links capable of up to 1.6 Terabits per second at a significantly lower latency. Furthermore, COLT is reducing latency on critical trading routes between key financial centres, including routes to London, Chicago, Frankfurt, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.

Terry Quigley, head of Industry Practices in COLT's Major Enterprise Division, said, "Today, every electronic financial transaction is a race and there are no silver medals - the winner takes all in just a few milliseconds. Technology is enabling the new trading opportunities and strategies and is now emerging as a true differentiator for organisations, hence our introduction of the COLT Fastnet Ultra family of services. COLT is ideally positioned to support global financial institutions in winning the liquidity race. We have invested in the technology to ensure latency is reliable and optimised for our customers and we have the service level agreements (SLAs) to support our offerings. We are also working closely with customers to determine the best location or 'centre of gravity' for their trading systems, which will enable them to optimise their connections to the various different exchanges and MTFs."

COLT is a leading infrastructure provider to the Finance community, serving 20 of Europe's stock exchanges, the top five providers of market data and providing the payments infrastructure for 13 central European banks. COLT has now launched the Fastnet Ultra range of services in order to meet the ever increasing demands on the networks linking banks, brokers, fund managers and exchanges.