Colt races ahead with revenue growth


20 Apr 2006

The business communications provider Colt Telecom grew its revenues by almost 60pc in its most recent year to more than €20m, with operating profits of €1.1m, the company revealed yesterday.

The firm also increased its corporate and mid-size customer numbers by more than 25pc including multinational ISPs, financial institutions, government offices and professional services organisations.

Last year the company built out its network with an investment of more than €1m to cover new areas such as the Sandyford Business Park.

Gary Keogh, managing director of Colt Telecom Ireland, said the company made “solid progress” during 2005. “Colt has established a strong foothold in Ireland and in 2006 we will further extend our footprint to enable us offer mid-size organisations a wide range of services and products.” He added that the company was seeing interest in its new internet protocol (IP) voice product which was launched in February.

However, Keogh criticised the unavailability of cost-effective SDSL (symmetrical DSL), which offers the same connection speeds for uploads as well as downloads. “[This] is hampering the provision of business-quality IP voice to a wider audience and preventing us from extending our product portfolio to the wider business community in Ireland,” he said. “The supply of business-class broadband to Irish businesses (particularly outside Dublin) is not available and we believe it is affecting the growth and competitiveness of these businesses both in Ireland and Europe.”

By Gordon Smith