Viatel

This article is about the Ireland Telecommunications company. For the Australian data service, see Videotex § Australia.

Viatel is a Dublin-based telecoms operator. Viatel, part of the Digiweb Group, is the largest Irish owned provider of connectivity (Managed Networks), voice and data centre solutions. Viatel purely focus on solutions for the SME, corporate, public sector and wholesale space.

Viatel own and operate a state of the art fully PCI and ISO certified data centre located in Dublin. Viatel provide co-location, dedicated servers and cloud services.

History

Viatel was founded in 1991 by Martin Varsavsky. In 1994, it went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Four years later, Varsavsky sold his stake in Viatel for US$200 million and left the company.[1]

In 1999, Viatel's market capitalization was valued at US$1.2 billion.[2] At that time, Viatel's second-largest outside shareholder was George Soros while the largest outside stake was held by the global telecommunications company COMSAT.[3]

On May 2, 2001, Viatel filed for bankcruptcy protection after being unable to repay its debts of over US$2.6 billion.[4]

In 2002, creditors swapped their loans for 97% of the company's shares. Its new funding was raised by several investors such as the American investment bank Morgan Stanley.[5]

In May 2013, Viatel was purchased by the Irish telecoms operator Digiweb.[6]

In November 2015 it was announced that Zayo was in the process of buying Viatel's UK and mainland Europe network, but leaving the Irish network to continue under the name of Viatel. The €98.8m transaction was completed on December 31st 2015.[7]

Awards

In April 2014 Viatel was shortlisted at the Ireland's Tech Excellence Awards. They were nominated for Company of the Year and Data Centre of the Year.

In May 2014 they were nominated in two categories (Wholesale Service Provider of the Year, and Network Operator of the Year)[8] at the Comms Business Awards.

Viatel has been named twice in consecutive years as a Best Managed company by Deloitte, 2014 and 2015 and also earned the title of Company of the Year at the 2015 Tech Excellence Awards.

For a second year in a row, they were shortlisted for Wholesale Service Provider of the Year at the Comms Business Awards, came Highly Commended for Best Wholesale Service Provider at the Comms National Awards,[9] and were nominated for Capacity Magazine's Global Carrier Awards for Best Pan-European Wholesale Carrier.[10]

In November 2015, they were nominated in Fingal Dublin's Business Excellence Awards for Business Growth Excellence Award, Large Employer of the Year Corporate Responsibility Award, and Multinational Employer of the Year Corporate Responsibility Award - Viatel won Large Employer of the Year.[11]

Alleged involvement in mass surveillance

Documents provided by Edward Snowden and seen by Süddeutsche Zeitung revealed that several telecom operators, including Viatel, have played a key role in helping the British intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) tap onto worldwide fiber-optic communications.[12]

References

  1. ↑ Brown, Eric. "The Connector". Forbes. Retrieved 4 August 2013. Martin Varsavsky has created three. In 1991 he launched Viatel, a pan-European telco that went public on the Nasdaq in 1994; he had put $230,000 into it, and he sold his stake later for $200 million. In 1998 he left Viatel to start Jazztel, a telecom network listed in Spain, and in the bubble his 20% stake was worth $1 billion.
  2. ↑ "Undervalued Viatel?". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 4 August 2013. Viatel, a global provider of telecommunications services, has operations and assets in Europe much like those of KPNQwest. Yet Viatel's market cap is a mere $1.2 billion compared with KPNQwest's $19 billion
  3. ↑ TEITELBAUM, RICHARD (17 February 1997). "Viatel A Cautionary Tale Wall Street Heavy Hitters Like George Soros Are Backing This Small, Shaky Telecom Outfit--But That Doesn't Mean You Should Too". CNN (Fortune magazine). Retrieved 4 August 2013.
  4. ↑ "Viatel seeks bankruptcy protection". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
  5. ↑ Wray, Richard. "Viatel emerges from bankruptcy protection with new funding". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
  6. ↑ "Digiweb Group acquires Viatel and VTLWaveNet". Capacity Magazine. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
  7. ↑ "Zayo Closes Acquisition of Viatel in Europe | Zayo Group". Zayo Group. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
  8. ↑ "The Archive | Comms Business Awards". commsbusinessawards.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-11-18.
  9. ↑ "2015 COMMS NATIONAL AWARDS SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED | Comms Dealer". www.comms-dealer.com. Retrieved 2015-11-18.
  10. ↑ "Capacity reveals Global Carrier Awards 2015 shortlist". www.capacitymedia.com. Retrieved 2015-11-18.
  11. ↑ "The Winners - Fingal Dublin Business Excellence & Corporate Responsibility Awards 2015 - Fingal Dublin Chamber - Business Networking in Fingal, Dublin". www.fingaldublinchamber.ie. Retrieved 2015-11-18.
  12. ↑ John Goetz and Frederik Obermaier. "Snowden enthüllt Namen der spähenden Telekomfirmen" (in German). Süddeutsche Zeitung. Retrieved 2 August 2013. In den internen Papieren des GCHQ aus dem Jahr 2009 stehen sie nun aufgelistet: Verizon Business, Codename: Dacron, British Telecommunications (codenamed "Remedy"), Vodafone Cable ("Gerontic"), Global Crossing ("Pinnage"), Level 3 (codenamed "Little"), Viatel ("Vitreous") und Interoute ("Streetcar").

External links

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