Can you tell us more about this acquisition and what it means?
This acquisition is a big step forward for TLPO as we are becoming a major actor in the management of infrastructures and connectivity in Luxembourg and across Europe. LuxConnect was founded in 2006 by the Luxembourg government in order to improve international connectivity for Luxembourg. Today, LuxConnect’s 23 fibre-optic connections abroad have positioned Luxembourg as the top country in the world for international bandwidth per user. And this is the great heritage we will build upon in the months and years to come.
What are the next steps you intend to carry out?
We plan to position ourselves on the international scene as a key player and the secure gateway into Europe. Our network will be upgraded to 100G during the year and we will continue to add services. We will largely focus on the idea of “capacity-on-demand” with the aim to serve big media groups for example. If the bandwidth is available, our customers will be able to perform the upgrade directly online with no human intervention.
We will also add extra resilience to the existing network in order to create a totally secure network between Luxembourg, Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Vienna and Zurich.
We will provide native encryption for companies located outside of Luxembourg. This will be a key advantage for the finance sector as a company located in Luxembourg will be able to interconnect securely to other financial companies in Europe. Here again, the human intervention is reduced to a minimum as everything can be automated.
Finally, we will increase the number of interconnected footprints internationally by connecting to two more PoPs in Frankfurt as well as opening a PoP in Zurich and Vienna. In turn, this should also open some more inroads to the Eastern countries.
Why is ITW a major event for you?
ITW is the key conference and meeting point for the wholesale industry with some of the biggest worldwide operators attending. We are here for the sixth time in a row and would not miss it as 50% of our annual wholesale business is done based on the relationships created during ITW.
This week is essential for us from two perspectives. Firstly, we aim to increase our interconnection with international operators in order to help them supply a local loop in Luxembourg and thus reach Europe. Secondly, we are looking into possible future collaboration with these operators whenever we would need to deliver services from Luxembourg to other international countries, in the case we don’t have our own fibre in place.
We are currently working with more than 30 operators from all over the world and we are planning to increase this number.
Why would Luxembourg be interesting?
Luxembourg has become an ICT hub in the past years and has attracted a large number of renowned international companies from different sectors: aerospace, media, e-commerce, finance and banking. The first-class communication networks, the ultra-high bandwidth, the strong focus on security and trust, and the state-of-the-art data centres all contribute to position the country as a major player in Europe. Luxembourg is also a key place for investments and is rapidly growing in terms of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Luxembourg is also located at the heart of Europe and its proximity to all the international internet hubs is a major advantage.
It is also important to note that these international companies settling in Luxembourg and willing to interconnect to their other subsidiaries in Europe usually work with at least two operators for the data part of their business. So there is room for many different operators to come to Luxembourg and expand their business.
