Business communications provider COLT Ireland doubled its revenue in 2004 for the fifth year in a row, to €12.5million, continuing its strong growth in the high-end telecom market.

While results for the parent group COLT Telecom were solid rather than spectacular, its Irish operation was boosted by strong demand from multinationals based in Ireland; particularly call centre solutions, it said.

Last year also saw the launch of three new Ethernet services and COLT will build on this operation during the year, giving global companies based in Ireland high-speed connectivity to other cities and countries.

COLT Telecom operate Ethernet links between local are networks across Europe, and the Department of Finance is one of its Irish clients, with links to the EU network in Brussels.

Mr Gary Keogh, managing director of COLT Ireland, said that COLT would seek to extend its operations amongst the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector later this year, with its VOIP (Voice-Over-Internet Protocol) service, which enables users to make free telephone calls anywhere in the world.

"We will shortly be launching VOIP, which we believe is a first of its kind for a telecom in Ireland, and we will also be looking at local loop unbundling and wireless solutions," he said.