Having previously been trading under the VTL Wavenet brand, exclusively within the wholesale market, Viatel will now offer an extended range of telecommunications services as part of its recent acquisition by the Dublin-based Digiweb Group. The expanded Digiweb Group will operate under two separate brand identities in order to serve its distinct and dedicated customer groups. Business customers including enterprise, government and wholesale businesses globally, will be served under the relaunched Viatel brand while consumer, residential and Small Business customers (predominantly in Ireland and Belgium) will be served under the Digiweb brand.
“Despite the current economic climate, there’s great cause for optimism in the telecommunications industry. Viatel’s relaunch proves as much,” said Digiweb Group CEO, Colm Piercy. “Tales of doom and gloom fill the business pages today and more success stories like Viatel’s are needed to change this narrative.”
There will, however, be a number of positive changes as part of the relaunch, as a means of harnessing the strengths and capabilities of both Digiweb and Viatel.
•Extra financial resources – With revenues of $78 million, the Digiweb Group generates operating profits exceeding $10 million annually. Backed by Morgan Stanley, a 33% shareholder in the Digiweb Group, Viatel’s financial resources have received a significant boost as part of the acquisition and subsequent relaunch
•New executive team / retention of key senior figures – The Digiweb Group has a combined workforce of 200 and, since the acquisition, Viatel has seen the arrival of a number of accomplished senior figures. The likes of Colm Piercy, Digiweb Group CEO, will be lending his vast experience to the Viatel business and outgoing Viatel CEO, Lucy Woods – who was integral to the success of VTLWaveNet – has taken a new position on the Digiweb Group board of directors
•New enterprise services – Having previously sold exclusively to wholesale markets, Viatel will also now service larger enterprise customers, where it expects a substantial uptake of its services. Viatel predicts an explosion in high bandwidth connectivity demand within the European enterprise market and the relaunch puts it in an ideal position to take advantage of this trend.
Viatel’s business and wholesale services now include high capacity-low latency bandwidth, colocation, fully managed voice, wavelength, dark fibre, VPN, metro Ethernet, MPLS, VPLS and disaster recovery connectivity
In addition to these key changes, Viatel is now extending its services to Ireland, with the majority of Digiweb enterprise customers transferring to Viatel with immediate effect. This allows these customers to benefit from the industry leading services available from Viatel and its pan-European network reach. Furthermore, this will also give Viatel access to the many global brands based in or operating from Ireland.
“The enterprise telecoms market in Europe is in a constant state of change,” adds Piercy. “Never has there been a better time for a company like Viatel to enter into this market and we are excited about the possibilities it holds. Digital trends such as cloud computing show no signs of slowing and businesses have never been more dependent on their networks. This is not unique to one particular country or region either, we see the appeal of Viatel’s industry leading enterprise services spreading right across our European network and to a whole range of different industries and businesses."