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The liquidators of bankrupt Dutch telecommunications group KPNQwest said Friday that they would be forced to shut down Europe's largest data network in days, after a court ruled against them in a dispute with its lender banks.

"It (the shutdown) will be within a matter of days," KPNQwest administrator Ed Meijer told Reuters late Friday.

The administrators had sought to force the banks to turn over money collected from KPNQwest's clients to keep the network running as they seek to sell it and to give customers more time to find alternative providers. U.S. telecommunications giant AT&T was one of two companies close to making an offer for KPNQwest's network, Meijer said. "Certainly two of them are very close to making a final offer," he said. Asked if AT&T was one of them, he said: "Absolutely."

Bankruptcy prompted banks that had extended the company a $506.8 million credit line to grab most of its assets, including cash and receivables, and to demand a repayment of the 300 million euros ($291.26 million) already drawn by KPNQwest.

Earlier this month the administrators had collected cash to keep the 15,535-mile network running until the end of this month, but banks refused to release collected cash until the liquidators secure a repayment with collateral. KPNQwest clients range from regional Internet service providers with a few hundred customers to corporate giants including Dell Computer and Hewlett-Packard, plus America Online and Tiscali.

News source: ZDNet
View: KPNQwest network to shut down

"First it was like a mile, then it was five miles, then 10, then 20," Holt said about the evolution of EtherLinx's development.

The key to EtherLinx's success is a single, small antenna that can be mounted just about anywhere -- on a water tower, on a building roof, or even on a billboard. It transmits data faster than a cable modem to a tiny, $150 receiver mounted to the side of a customer's home or business. That receiver is hardwired to a personal computer using standard CAT 5 wiring.

Like FM radio, EtherLinx's wireless broadband access should be available just about anywhere -- at home, in a car, or at the beach. But unlike radio, this technology allows for two-way communication, making it perfect for wireless broadband Net access. And since it's wireless, the easily installed equipment can reach even the most remote, rural areas, opening broadband to the estimated 90 percent of the nation that still can't get it.

Security and privacy are the great unknowns with this spectrum of wireless access, but EtherLinx says it has addressed those issues. Furrier and Holt say that transmitted data can be received only by their equipment, and each receiver has a unique address, making it relatively easy to detect and then track someone who's trying to gain unauthorized access to the data being sent.

The EtherLinx equipment is so innovative that the New York Times recently suggested it could render traditional cable modems and DSL connections obsolete, though Furrier downplays that suggestion. He says his company is looking for partners, not victims.

"We're not out to kill the monopolies," he said. "We just want to serve broadband up to the masses."

Now that the word is getting out about this technology, offers are pouring in from around the world. At least 2,000 business leads flooded the founders' email accounts just this week, one of them offering to invest as much as $1 million in this new company.

Last year, when EtherLinx shopped its idea around to Silicon Valley venture capitalists, many of them simply laughed, and none of them ponied up any money. EtherLinx instead was funded primarily by angel investors, wealthy individuals who put a paltry $200,000 in start-up funding. But since news of its wireless achievements have begun to trickle out, several well-known venture capitalists are now clamoring for a chance to get in on the deal.

EtherLinx has been operating a small, for-pay trial in Oakland, California, for the past year. The company will next open up the antenna transmission and begin covering the small city of Campbell, California, where DSL service is not available. The company's founders say they hope to work closely with the Campbell Police Department to deploy the technology. Since it's totally mobile, an EtherLinx antenna can be installed on the police headquarters' roof, and officers can have high-speed access to the Net or to the department intranet anytime, all the time.

This past week, Congressman Mike Honda met with the company's founders and scheduled a demo and presentation in Washington, DC. Honda says he wants to see how quickly this technology can be deployed elsewhere in the nation.

In his New York Times article, reporter John Markoff cited other companies trying to duplicate EtherLinx's achievement. Nokia, Iospan Wireless, and Navini Networks all sell similar products, but to date none has met with EtherLinx's success. EtherLinx's two founders say they hope that being first to market will make them a lasting presence.

Meantime, EtherLinx also has an innovative way of penetrating communities, one neighborhood at a time, by working with schools first.

"We then get a broadcast location to the neighborhood and we would share some revenue with the schools," Furrier said.