iBasis Inc.,, a provider of Internet-based voice communications services (VoIP), today announced that COLT Telecom Group plc. has interconnected its pan-European network with The iBasis Network, the global VoIP infrastructure.

The agreement between the two companies has enabled COLT to route its international voice and fax traffic over The iBasis Network.

It has also has allowed iBasis to leverage COLT's pan-European network to deliver international traffic across Europe's major business centers and helped the firm dramatically increase its revenues in Europe, representing approximately 36 percent of the firm's total revenues.

"Our strong relationship with COLT has played an important role in enabling iBasis to nearly quadruple its European business over the past year," says Ofer Gneezy, president and CEO of iBasis.

"Through our interconnections in London, Frankfurt, and the US we have carried large volumes of global voice traffic for COLT, over the past year, while our access to their high quality voice infrastructure has helped strengthen our footprint across Europe," he says.

COLT's pan-European network links Europe's financial and business centers and provides a range of telecommunications services to corporate and carrier customers. COLT currently operates in 29 European cities in twelve countries, and plans to offer services in 32 cities by the end of 2001.

"Our decision to interconnect with iBasis was based on their proven ability to provide global voice services the quality of which is comparable with that of our own state-of-the-art network," says Ian Hinchliffe, Commercial Director for COLT Telecommunications.

"By leveraging iBasis' global reach and carrier-class VoIP infrastructure, we are adding a new dimension to our service capability and are able to deliver high quality, high value service to our customers across Europe," says Ian Hinchliffe, Commercial Director for COLT Telecommunications.

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iBasis says that much of the growing demand for the firm's international VoIP services in Europe, has come from Tier 1 carriers, the world's largest and most demanding service providers. More than 50 percent of all voice traffic carried by The iBasis Network is generated by Tier 1 carriers.

According to industry analyst publication TeleGeography 2002, Europe has experienced the strongest international traffic growth of any region outside North America, and represented about 43 percent of all international traffic in 2000.

The firm also says that VoIP transport is expected to account for approximately six percent of all international voice traffic in 2001, it comprised almost three percent in 2000.

With the cost of maintaining global service operations is still high for most large carriers, iBasis argues that through outsourcing international traffic to the firm, service providers can gain a competitive advantage by lowering the cost of transport and reducing overall global infrastructure and service support requirements.