Lastminute spruces up network following acquisitions

Travel website lastminute.com and COLT Telecom have sealed a three-year deal whereby COLT will provide hosting and network infrastructure services for the company's European operations.

The move fulfils lastminute's need for an improved infrastructure to handle both website traffic and interoffice communications following a recent string of acquisitions, including hotel booking agency First Option in January 2004 and holiday reseller Med Hotels in December 2004.

Luther Garcia, manager of global e-commerce architecture at lastminute.com, said in a statement that the company needed a communications infrastructure that could "support the increasing demands on our network at a price we could afford".

The deal is an expansion of an existing relationship between the two companies.

As part of the deal, COLT will roll out an IP-based network for 12 lastminute.com offices around Europe. It will provide higher capacity than the existing network and will allow for the easy addition of new locations as necessary in the future.

COLT will also double the amount of server hosting space it currently offers the travel site.