Major Financial Customers

RNS Number:0673R
Colt Telecom Group PLC
20 October 2003


COLT SECURES MAJOR FINANCIAL CUSTOMERS FOR MANAGED IP VPN SERVICE


Over 300 SWIFT customers in Europe select COLT as number one choice of network
partner


20th October 2003


COLT Telecom Group plc has significantly strengthened its position in the
European IP Virtual Private Network market, having signed over 300 of SWIFT's
financial services members across Europe in just 8 months. COLT has a
multi-million euro contract with SWIFT, an industry body that supplies secure
messaging services to 7,000 financial companies worldwide.


COLT has secured more SWIFT customers across Europe than its competitors, making
COLT the first choice of network partner for SWIFT members in Europe. These
significant wins have allowed COLT to increase its IP VPN customer base in
Europe by 75%, taking the total number of European IP VPN customers to around
700 in just two years.


With financial customer wins spread across the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland,
Benelux, Portugal, Italy and Spain, COLT has reinforced its standing as a
leading European telecommunications provider and has further demonstrated its
strength in the financial sector.


As a network partner for SWIFT, COLT supplies its members with managed IP VPN
services, to provide a reliable and secure link to the Secure IP Network that
underpins the SWIFTNet messaging platform. SWIFTNet is an advanced IP-based
messaging platform, which allows SWIFT's financial services members to engage in
the reliable and secure transmission of critical financial information and
transaction data, such as bank payments, reports, and securities information.


"That COLT has migrated over 300 of SWIFT's members to the new SWIFTNet network
is a great endorsement from the financial sector," said Steve Akin, COLT
President and CEO. "We're experiencing huge demand for IP VPN services from
financial services companies, as the solution is ideally suited to companies
with multi-branch offices, a geographically dispersed workforce and a need for
the fast and secure delivery of data. Through our partnership with SWIFT, we
have been able to substantially increase our IP VPN customer base in Europe and
are well placed to further bolster our position in this market."


Valued at Euro1.9bn in Western Europe in 2002, the IP VPN market is forecast to
grow by 83% in Europe in 2003.1 COLT's managed IP VPN solution for SWIFTNet is
based on MPLS (multi-protocol label switching) technology.

This allows financial customers to benefit from enhanced levels of security and
scalable network architecture, while allowing them to prioritise the delivery of
mission critical applications over the network. The majority of COLT's customers
are now demanding MPLS as part of their IP VPN solution.


Didier Verstichel, head of Worldwide Networks, SWIFT commented, "With COLT
counting 11 of Europe's 13 stock exchanges and some of the world's biggest
financial companies as customers, we were assured of its ability to migrate our
customers to SWIFTNet. With COLT as their network partner, our customers benefit
from faster provisioning of services, excellent customer service and
competitively priced products."


About COLT

COLT Telecom Group plc is a leading pan-European provider of business
communications services. COLT has over 17,000 network services and eBusiness
customers. The company owns an integrated 20,000 kilometre network that directly
connects over 9,000 buildings in 32 major cities in 13 countries augmented with
a further 41 points of presence across Europe and 11 Internet Solution Centres.
COLT supplies customers across the full spectrum of industry, service and
government sectors with unrivalled end-to-end network security, reliability and
service.


COLT Telecom Group plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (CTM.L) and NASDAQ
(COLT). Information about COLT and its products and services can be found on the
web at www.colt.net


Note to Editor: Please ensure COLT is always spelt in CAPITALS.


About SWIFT

SWIFT is the industry-owned cooperative supplying secure messaging services and
interface software to 7,000 financial institutions in 198 countries.  SWIFT
carried over 1.5 billion messages in 2001.  The average daily value of payment
messages on SWIFT is estimated to be above USD 6 trillion.  SWIFT provides
messaging services to banks, broker/dealers and investment managers, as well as
to market infrastructures in payments, treasury, securities and trade.  These
services help customers reduce costs, improve automation and manage risk.  For
more information about SWIFT please refer to our website: www.swift.com.


Media
Ben Starkie
Weber Shandwick for COLT Telecom
Email: [e-mail]
COLT Press Office: + 44 (0)7 017 100 100


Analysts and Investors
John Doherty
Director of Corporate Communications
COLT Telecom Group
Email [e-mail]
DDI: [phone]

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