In Europe, cross-border regions are the flavor of the month. Tritone, a consortium-based telco made up of energy utilities, other telcos and venture capitalists, recently started a new wireline, datacom and ISP network for the Meuse-Rhine Euroregion, the Land of Charlemagne. The move is in keeping with the EU’s transition in political focus from nation states to Euroregions.
Covering German, Belgian and Dutch border areas, with the cities of Aachen, Hasselt, Liège and Maastricht, Tritone’s stakeholders are Belgacom, Accom, Maastricht and Heerlen’s utilities, cable operator Palet Kabelcom and venture capitalists, Limburg Development Company, LIOF. Consortium leader, Belgacom (40%) achieved sales of 4.2 billion Euros in 1998, up 11% on 1997.
Top quality voice telephony, faster Internet connections, ease and lower costs depend on a fiber optic ring linking this transnational community. Products include TRILINE, which bundles communications, offering speeds from 64 kb to 2 mb per second, with higher speed options on a project basis.
TRISAVE is another product which automatically routes outgoing voice and fax traffic through Tritone’s exchange using a smart box. This provides clients with cheaper Euroregional inter-area and international telephony. TRICONNECT, with its Multiport Interface to Tritone’s digital technology, links to the fiber optic network.
“Research has shown that this Euroregion is one of the most important for cross-border telephony. Tritone plans to be the first Euroregional telecommunications service provider offering the same rates and services across the borders of the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. Our objective is to capture 20% of the Euroregional market within six years. It is a new virtual country without borders,” said André Jurres, Tritone’s president.
