Perseus Telecom said it launched the first wireless microwave network to connect London-based financial markets and which reduces latency by 40%.

Perseus said in a statement that the service connects the London-based financial markets of NYSE Euronext, BATS Chi-X, London Stock Exchange, London Metal Exchange, iCap EBS and Thomson Reuters. It is available from the London Stock Exchange and Thomson Reuters LHC data centres in the City of London; Equinix LD4 in Slough and the NYSE Euronext data centre in Basildon.

“This is not only important for London as we operate the fastest transatlantic link between between Frankfurt and Chicago and London lies between them,” Dan Watkins, director of products and marketing, told Markets Media. “The two most valuable derivatives exchanges are CME and Eurex so this will increase market interest in futures and options.”

Perseus said it was the first to offer a commercial microwave link between London and Frankfurt in October 2012.  Clients using the microwave link between London and Frankfurt include buy- and sell-side firms, global banks, market makers and proprietary trading shops.  They buy fractional ownership of Perseus’ routes and pay a monthly lease.

The link cut the round trip time between Frankfurt and London from 8.3 milliseconds for the fastest fibre to 4.6 milliseconds and the new service reduces the time by a further 40%. Initial microwave capacity between Frankfurt and London was filled a month after launching and Watkins said the London service was live and being used by customers.

“We hope the sign-up rate will be the same,” he said. “The service will appeal to some high-frequency and low latency applications but also makes sense for pre-trade analytics and market data-driven applications.”