Spectrum

Providing ultra-high bandwidth connectivity, Colt Spectrum delivers the flexibility and control of an open line system, without the overheads of Dark Fibre. It enables you to leverage your own investments in DWDM equipment, whilst benefiting from Colt’s extensive long haul fibre, amplification infrastructure and ROADM equipment, known as the Photonic Layer.

Colt Spectrum is a hyperscale connectivity product which uses Colt’s dedicated network at the photonic layer to provide services over long-haul distances. Customer’s use their own optical transponder equipment to connect to the Colt IQ Network in blocks of 50GHz optical channels – with the advantage that Colt manages the underlying line system

Alternatively, Dark Fibre can be leased to enable customer to meet capacities of 2Tb+ but this requires increased equipment and networking experience to light, monitor and manage the service.

1. Flexibility & Control: Providing a viable alternative to lighting Dark Fibre, Colt Spectrum offers volume wavelength transport over the state of the art Colt IQ Network optical backbone. Colt Spectrum provides a higher degree of choice when making a build or buy decision, cutting time to market for new routes, and providing a simplified operational model to support multi-terabit network expansion.
2. Simplify: Colt Spectrum enables you to leverage your own DWDM transponder hardware, and supports both alien wavelength and friendly wavelength configurations delivered over Colt’s fully managed line system. This puts you in control of your network and enables you to turn up new 100G wavelengths as required.
3. Future-proofed: The Colt IQ long haul optical network is based on a state-of-the-art platform which will support the flexible grid technologies of the future. Colt Spectrum provides support for various different modulation schemes, opening up the possibility of delivering future upgrades as technology changes and web-scale technologies continue to drive the demand for higher bandwidths
4. Ownership economics: Leverage your existing DWDM assets, and provide a migration path towards or away from Dark Fibre as required. Add, remove or re-configure wavelengths to meet the demands of your business.

1. Network Diversity: We understand the importance of network route diversity - our business is to protect your business. We work with you to design a long haul network which is geographically diverse from other routes you currently use, or provide a clear secondary diverse path.
2. Extensive Reach: We are located in more European data centres than any other provider - giving you the maximum possible choice of locations and customisation to your business.
3. Our Network: Our Colt IQ Network is available to more than 27,500 buildings - including direct fibre connections to around 900 data centres in Europe, North America and Asia - more than any other carrier. In addition, we wholly own this extensive fibre footprint which means you are in safe hands. We offer the most extensive and reliable network in Europe, supported 24/7 by over 5000 employees globally, across 32 countries.
4. What We Stand For: Colt has built its reputation on putting customers first. Customers include data intensive organisations spanning over 213 cities in over 30 countries. Colt is a recognised innovator and pioneer in Software Defined Networks (SDN) and Network Function Virtualisation (NFV). Privately owned, Colt is one of the most financially sound companies in its industry and able to provide the best customer experience at a competitive price.

"Colt Spectrum enables hyperscale customers to have the control and flexibility to put into place ultra-high capacity solutions now, which leverage the Colt IQ Network. We have the reach, scale, knowledge and experience to partner with our customers on this bandwidth growth path. We’re also to provide a migration path to Dark Fibre in the future as bandwidth requirements increase - whilst delivering their bandwidth needs for today."

David Williams, Product Manager Optical Networks

Spectrum is available based on 50Ghz channels, and provides access to an optical core network based on DWDM technology consisting of fibre, ROADM nodes and amplification infrastructure - collectively known as a photonic layer. The photonic layer connects key service locations such as data centres and Colt network nodes.

The Colt platform supports transport of coherent wavelengths, based on a modulation scheme of your choice: QPSK, 8QAM or 16QAM. Other modulation schemes may be supported, please get in touch to discuss your requirements in more detail.

Want to learn more about our optical services? Check out some of our related products and services below.

Private Wave – Private Optical Network
Secure, flexible and high performance private optical networking built on customer-dedicated WDM equipment and fibre infrastructure.

Dark Fibre Network
Meet all future business network needs, with Colt’s Dark Fibre Services. Get the maximum control over your network, with a trusted platform, in a cost effective way.