• Home
  • Customer Success
  • Windstream Wholesale and Colt Technology Services Achieve Transatlantic 800GbE Breakthrough With Nokia
  1. Home
    Item seperator
  3. Item seperator
    Windstream Wholesale and Colt Technology Services Achieve Transatlantic 800GbE Breakthrough With Nokia

Customer success stories

United States North America

Windstream Wholesale and Colt Technology Services achieve transatlantic 800GbE breakthrough with Nokia

About

Windstream Wholesale

Windstream Wholesale is recognized as an innovative optical technology leader. The company specializes in providing wavelength and dark fiber solutions, catering to a diverse clientele that includes carriers, content providers, and hyperscalers across the United States and Canada.

Colt Technology Services

Colt Technology Services is a global digital infrastructure company dedicated to creating connections for businesses worldwide. Operating across more than 40 countries and 230 cities, Colt boasts extensive fiber optic networks that connect 32,000 buildings.

Challenge

Windstream Wholesale and Colt Technology Services sought to push the boundaries of network capacity, speed, and latency to support the growing demands of advanced network applications, such as AI data center networking, content delivery networks, and financial data hub connections, between two of the world's largest financial trading hubs: London and Chicago. This required an innovative solution capable of delivering ultra-high wavelength capacity and power efficiency over a vast transatlantic distance.

“Pushing the boundaries of technology innovation is a fundamental part of our customer commitment: it means we stay a step ahead of the market, so we’re ready when our customers ask, “What’s next for us?” This trial has seen us build a powerful industry collaboration to explore the ‘what’s next?’. It’s tested the limits of infrastructure performance and capability across thousands of miles of land and sea with incredible networking technologies, and it’s demonstrated the power and potential of what can be achieved, without skipping a beat.”
Buddy Bayer
Chief Operating Officer of Colt Technology Services

Solution

The collaboration leveraged Nokia's pioneering sixth-generation Photonic Service Engine (PSE-6s) coherent optics and 7750 Service Router (SR) high-performance routing platforms. This technology was deployed over Colt's extensive transatlantic subsea and terrestrial fiber optic network, integrated with Windstream Wholesale’s domestic U.S. Intelligent Converged Optical Network (ICON). The trial demonstrated an end-to-end 800 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) service transport from router to router over 1Tbps optical transport.

“Our latest innovation represents a true game-changer for global connectivity. By partnering with two extraordinary leaders in the industry, we’re enabling unprecedented bandwidth capabilities that are essential for driving AI-powered applications worldwide for our customers. As an optical technology leader, Windstream Wholesale and our partners are establishing 800GbE as the next evolutionary advancement increase for wave services. This collaboration has pushed the boundaries of what’s possible, creating a network solution like no other. Together, we’re not just meeting the demands of the future—we’re shaping it.”
Joe Scattareggia
President of Windstream Wholesale

Results

The successful trial showcased significant advancements in global connectivity:

  • World-first achievement: Completed the world's first 800GbE optical and IP service trial connecting London and Chicago.
  • Enhanced capacity and speed: Doubled service bandwidth, supporting ultra-high wavelength capacity and boosting internet service speeds.
  • Transatlantic reach: Successfully delivered over an 8500km subsea and terrestrial route on a live production network.
  • Power efficiency: Demonstrated innovative power-saving networking technologies while maintaining high performance.
  • Future-ready infrastructure: Proved the capability to support advanced network applications like AI data center networking and content delivery.
“Such an ambitious project — to link two of the world's most important financial hubs — sets the bar very high for network capacity, speed, security and reliability. This demonstration would simply not have been possible without the commitment of Nokia and our partners to the highest standards of innovation in networking technology. Together, we are redefining the art of the possible for IP and optical networks enabling cross-continental subsea and terrestrial communications.”
Federico Guillén
President of Network Infrastructure at Nokia

Solution components

Discover more customer stories

Back to customer success home