In 1998, telecom services integrator and network solutions provider Global Internetworking Inc. was founded in McLean, Virginia. That same year, European Telecom and Technology was founded in London. In April 2005, Mercator Partners, a special purpose acquisition company bought both Global Internetworking Inc. and European Telecommunications & Technology in 2006, merging the two companies' operations and renaming it Global Telecom & Technology, Inc..
2006–present
In December 2009, GTT acquired Denver-based WBS Connect in a stock and cash transaction, shifting its business model from being an exclusively virtual network operator and telecom solutions integrator to a network operator providing IP transit and Ethernet services. In June 2011 GTT acquired PacketExchange, a privately held UK company and operator of a global IP backbone, for $20 million in cash. In May 2012 GTT acquired nLayer Communications, a privately held global IP backbone, for $18 million. In April 2013 GTT acquired the Tier 1 IP network Tinet from Inteliquent for $54.5 million in cash and services, resulting in Tier 1 status for GTT's global IP network. In June 2013 GTT was listed on the New York Stock Exchange, under the symbol GTT. On January 14, 2014, GTT announced that the company was officially changing its name to GTT Communications, Inc. In February 2014, GTT announced the opening of a new office in Hong Kong's Central District, bringing its total global presence to 9 offices in 6 countries. In October 2014, GTT announced it had closed the acquisition of UNSi, a communications company providing data services to large enterprise and carrier clients. On February 19, 2015, GTT entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MegaPath’s Managed Services business, which provides private wide-area-networking, Internet access services, managed services and managed security to multinational clients. In July 2015, GTT Communications, Inc. and Saudi Telecom Company jointly announced 100-Gigabit IP Transit connectivity services to the Middle East. On October 22, 2015, GTT acquired One Source Networks, a provider of global data, Internet, Session Initiation Protocol trunking and managed services to Fortune 1000 companies. On February 9, 2016, GTT acquired Telnes Broadband for $18 million. On October 7, 2016, GTT announced the award of Government Services Administrations IT Schedule 70 Contract. The IT Schedule 70 is the largest acquisition vehicle in the United States federal government. On January 9, 2017, GTT completed the acquisition of Hibernia Networks for $590 million. The company acquired five subsea cables, including Hibernia Express, a low latency transatlantic cable system. In May, GTT purchased IP broker and aggregator Giglinx, for $21 million. On June 19, GTT announced it was acquiring Perseus Telecom, a provider of low latency services for the financial market industry, for $37.5 million. On June 26, GTT announced it was acquiring Massachusetts-based telecommunications providerGlobal Capacity, for $100 million and 1.85 million shares of GTT common stock. The deal closed on September 18. In January 2018, GTT announced the acquisition of Custom Connect, an Amsterdam-headquartered provider of high speed network connectivity for multinational enterprises and financial services firms. On February 26, GTT announced the acquisition of Interoute, operator of one of Europe's largest independent fiber networks and cloud networking platforms, for approximately €1.9 billion in cash. The deal subsequently closed on May 31. On March 12, GTT expanded its Canadian footprint by acquiring Toronto-based telecommunications company Accelerated Connections. On October 1, GTT acquired Cary, NC-based Access Point, a provider of communications services in the US market. On December 2, 2019 GTT completed its acquisition of KPN International, a division of Netherlands-based telecommunications company KPN N.V., operating a global IP network serving enterprise and carrier clients.
Operations
The company operates a global network of over 650 points of presence. The network spans six continents, and provides services to clients in more than 140 countries. The company also operates three subsea cable systems, GTT Express, GTT North and GTT South. The latter two cables make up the GTT Atlantic cable system. As of December 2018, the company had 3,200 employees.
Services
Transport and infrastructure
The company's transport and infrastructure portfolio of services consists of wavelength, Ethernet and colocation services. Wavelength services are transported across GTT's subsea and terrestrial fiber network and DWDM platform to provide dedicated, high speed connectivity between data centers, carrier hotels, media hubs and customer sites. The optical network has over 75 PoPs in North America and Europe. The network includes three owned subsea cables and a large independent fiber backbone in Europe. GTT's Ethernet services consist of point-to-point, point-to-multipoint and Ethernet Direct service. GTT's colocation service offers space and power in colocation facilities in Europe and North America.
Internet
As of 2019, GTT was one of the five largest Internet backbones in terms of traffic. The company's high speed Internet services include IP transit, dedicated internet access and broadband internet services. GTT also operates a 100% native dual stack carrier class network built on optical infrastructure.
Wide area networking
GTT provides WAN services, including SD-WAN, VPLS and MPLS, which are transported across the company's tier 1 global network.
Managed services
GTT offers end-to-end network management, with managed services that include managed network services and multilayered security services.
Voice
GTT's voice services include SIP trunking, hosted enterprise PBX, cloud-based contact center, and call routing capabilities.
Customers
GTT's notable projects include a 100G IP transit wholesale agreement with Saudi Telecom Company, and an agreement to provide 100G wavelength services between the U.S. and Europe, for the Department of Defense's Transoceanic Optical Transport – Atlantic program.
