European Backbone Network

Our advanced, 6,800 km European fibre network runs through the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. Wholly-owned, it ensures reliable, cost-effective connectivity that is fully supported and secure.

Network reach:

• Over 100 Points-of-Presence (PoP) in 34 key European cities
• 6,800 kilometers of fibre (G.655 fibre from Lucent)
• Based on 72-fibre cables on the terrestrial sections and 48-fibre sea-cables
• 2 submarine cables between UK and mainland Europe (G.654 fibre from Sumitomo)
• Spare fibre for future growth and customer use

Transmission network

• Based on equipment from Nortel networks and Huawei deploying DWDM technology with SDH transmission standards and highly resilient bi-directional switched rings
• The Long-Haul Network provides full protection with geographical diversity or unprotected wavelengths as required
• The SDH layer consists of overlay rings at STM-16 and STM-64 line rates.
• Supports SDH based leased line services from 2Mbps to 2.5Gbps.
• The DWDM layer provides optical channels at:
  - 1Gbps Ethernet
  - 2.5Gbps
  - 10Gbps Ethernet or STM-64
  - 40Gbps

IP Network

• Built using carrier class IP equipment from Juniper and Cisco
• Internet (Transit) connections at 5 separate locations across Europe
• Peering in London, Zurich, Paris and Amsterdam
• The Pan-European IP Network supports MPLS VPNs