Deregulation opened the way, and communications needs have never been greater. A commitment to meeting those needs quickly and cost effectively has enabled Interoute to become, in a little over five years, one of the fastest growing telecommunications companies in Europe, with over 1,300 staff and multiple operations in 11 countries across Europe and the USA.

Young and flexible, in a constantly changing environment, Interoute has secured market share by responding quickly and effectively to demands of the customer. In achieving that, Interoute now offer business, residential and carrier services to over 80 per cent of Western Europe (or 310 million people).

Good, cost effective communications are vital to your business, which is why Interoute concentrate on reducing costs by up to 70% against BT. Interoute offer a diverse portfolio of high-quality, cost-effective voice, fax, internet, video and ISDN solutions and, although they work with high-end corporate customers on a regular basis, they predominantly provide services to the SME (small to mid-size enterprise) market.

"When I talk to corporate customers there are four things that they are interested in" says John Jones, Corporate Sales Director. "Cost. Well it doesn't cost anything to be our customer and we provide free connection to the network. Contract. We don't tie you in for a year, we ask that you give us 30 days notice. Quality. Well, that's a given in our industry. Finally our Customer Care is second to none and is available round the clock, 365 days a year."

Interoute's commitment to Customer Care provides for the individual residential user right up to the major global corporation, and the company has long recognised that quality of Customer Care is an essential factor by which customers measure performance. As John Jones affirms: "Gone are the days when you could just say 'we'll save 35% on your BT calls.' More aggressive competition means you need to focus on providing value-added services to your customers. Selling is very much solutions based, and we work with customers on a consultative basis by meeting their needs rather than satisfying our own. We have gone to great lengths to ensure our Customer Care is among the best within the industry, and to handle the growing needs of the customer we have established a dedicated call centre in Ramsgate, Kent." (Earlier this year the company was presented with the 'Town Crest' by the Mayor of Ramsgate in recognition of its commitment to the town.)

"One aspect of Customer Care which marks us out is the speed and the nature of our response. We must be honest and if we can't do something for our customers, we tell them. What we don't do is mislead to get the order and then disappoint further down the line! This approach works for us, and is a measure of both our ability to look after our customers, and the quality of our network."

For the future, Interoute are now building one of Europe's largest fibre-optic networks. Linking 17 countries and 70 cities, the i-21 network will provide capacity that dwarfs any telecommunications infrastructure in place today. Multiple country networks will link to give unrivalled resilience and help realise internet based aspirations for millions of businesses throughout Europe.

Over $1.2bn has so far been invested in Phase One of the project and this goes live at the end of this year. The timing of i-21 could not have been better. Demand for bandwidth in Europe, hastened by the explosion in data traffic is unprecedented.

When i-21 is fully realised, there will be no limit to what Interoute can achieve, and they will be the forerunner in Europe and the equal of anything throughout the world. In the short term the aim is to be the leading European bandwidth provider, and in the longer term Interoute will offer a complete core to edge service.

Driving down costs and offering an increasing range of services means Interoute is good news for the customer and bad news for the competition.

For more information on the advantages that Interoute can offer to your business call free on 0800 097 0800, or email: corporatesales@interoute.co.uk

For more information on Interoute, visit our website at: www.interoute.com