BT To Expand Ultra-Low Latency Capabilities

BT announced its plans for the expansion of ultra-low latency connectivity into continental Europe.

BT Radianz Ultra will provide market participants in Paris and London with sub-millisecond access to market data and execution services, exchanges and Multilateral Trading Facilities (MTFs) in both of these major financial centers, as it does currently for participants in the New York and Chicago markets.

Latency remains a hot topic for trading firms across Europe and around the world as low-latency, high-speed and cross-border trading strategies are increasingly used across asset classes.

According to Tabb Group, if an agency broker's electronic trading platform is relying on a service five milliseconds behind the competition, it could cost the firm up to $4 million with ten milliseconds of latency potentially resulting in a 10% drop in revenues.

Over the past five years major investment firms have changed their electronic trading architectures, BT noted in a release.

There has been a move away from a centralized model with remote access to many European exchanges to a more complex decentralized model. Firms have located their trading engines near or within exchanges, requiring the synchronization of their trading strategies with a central location.

Electronic trading is now shifting to a new model that is still decentralized but requires synchronization between the investment firm's individual trading engines located at each different exchange. Implementing the necessary low-latency technology across Europe that has scalability, speed and reliability has become increasingly complex for financial institutions to manage themselves.

BT Radianz Ultra is targeted specifically at helping firms benefit from the latest low-latency technology without them having to manage the complexity, the company stated.

Marc Carletti, head of global banking for BT Global Banking & Financial Markets said: "As new execution venues come on-line and existing ones consolidate, low-latency access to markets is a critical component of successful trading strategies. As the exchange landscape changes across Europe, we've had numerous customers in Paris requesting low-latency connectivity to the London markets. In direct response to these requests, we're making BT Radianz Ultra available to them. The expansion of BT Radianz Ultra into a fourth financial center is evidence of BT's commitment to being a global leader in providing ultra-low latency access to markets around the world."

Implementation of BT Radianz Ultra is underway with the service expected to be available in Paris in May 2011. Melanie Rodier has worked as a print and broadcast journalist for over 10 years, covering business and finance, general news, and film trade news. Prior to joining Wall Street & Technology in April 2007, Melanie lived in Paris, where she worked for the International Herald ... View Full Bio