KPNQwest saga: Ebone is e-gone

KPNQwest, the bankrupt Dutch telecommunications group, has begun shutting down its Ebone network, leaving up to 4,500 companies without their Internet connection.

Administrators in Belgium rejected a rescue bid in the epic bankruptcy saga, and parts of the KPNQwest network are expected to be sold within days. "Ebone was the first backbone of Europe," said Graham Kinsey, staff convenor at the Ebone network center in Belgium. "I am disgusted." KPNQwest was declared bankrupt at the end of May after its supervisory board, including representatives of its founders and key shareholders KPN and Qwest, resigned.

The bankruptcy trustees had so far managed to keep the network operational, despite a dispute with KPNQwest's banks over funds collected from clients. Ebone operators made the decision to pull the plug because a temporary arrangement to pay them expired Monday, and a bid for the network by Oakley Capital was rejected by Belgian administrators the same day. The Ebone staff is not optimistic about finding jobs, Kinsey said. "One thousand people have been fired from Ebone, but 17,000 are going from (troubled telecommunications giant) WorldCom. There are not many (Internet service providers) taking people on."

News source: ZDNet