Wholesale operator Colt has claimed its position as the network for networks after doing some SDN and NFV cleverness with AT&T. Coincidentally, Orange announced the launch of an SDN project at the exact same time.

Colt apparently has a hard-on for software, using software defined networking and network functions virtualization APIs to make service provider architectures interoperable with each other. Ultimately, this means SDN-managed services can be booted up and migrated across multiple networks in near real-time; so operators the world over can start collaborating more effectively, apparently.

This would appear to fall under AT&T’s wider network transformation initiative, Domain 2.0. For Domain 2.0, AT&T basically threw a tonne of industry vendors into the ring, let them fight it out, with the lucky winner being allowed to have its way with the network. It has put NFV, SDN and Cloud at the forefront of the transformation effort, which is where Colt comes in.

“This proof of concept is a key building block giving enterprises the power to provision scalable, flexible network services on-demand. The API in our trial makes managing integrated SDNs accessible, agile, flexible, and easy to adopt,” said Rajiv Datta, Colt’s CTO.

Over the last few years, Colt has been developing an elastic transport network based on SDN tech, where it can ostensibly allocate resources, bandwidth and functions to various parts of the network. Now it is partnering with AT&T to deliver exactly that.

Orange, coincidentally, just announced that it has launched the Easy Go Network, a fully-virtualized, network functions on-demand service, fuelled by a lovely little bit of SDN. Funny timing that, innit. Especially as the french telco and AT&T have already collaborated on SDN and all things open.

“It is designed to help businesses anticipate and address their digital needs fast and within budget,” said Pierre-Louis Biaggi, vice president, Connectivity Business Unit at Orange Business Services. “We are using an open-standards based approach to develop our SDN and NFV strategy, and we are planning to launch a universal CPE for larger sites next year. Our ultimate goal is an adaptive network, which we will bring to our customers within the next three years,”

Now we’re not saying that AT&T and Colt are going to be involved in the full-scale deployment of an “adaptive network” in the next few years, we’re just saying we wouldn’t be surprised if they were.