KPNQwest Files for Bankruptcy

ives writes "Today KPNQwest filed for bankruptcy. KPNQwest owns the most important fibre backbone in Europe. Apparently they are not planning on switching off their network, but without maintenance it will probably slowly degrade. The official press release can be found here."

Comments

US Buyout?

[TibbonZero]

Perhaps some US company that is looking to expand it's presence overseas (Like AOL) might buy the backbone. Just a possiblity

Shit

[KinkyClown]

This is weird: I have to read this first on a foreign website! I am Dutch myself...

No maintenance?

[sniepre]

I have a strong suspicion, that lack of maintenance is not the primary danger that the network would face, but rather the fact that if anyone chooses to own the network up, or do some *experimental routing* that there is nothing that would be done about it!

Hacker paradise! :D

letting it explode

[LinuxGeek8]

It's just that KPN and Qwest do not want to invest much more money in KPNQwest.
So the plan might be to just let it explode, buy the remaining assets, and start a new company.

That's a likely scenario here in Holland.
It is what happened to DAF (trucks) and other companies.
They go broke, and in the same time they start a new company with the bought assets of the old one.
Your debts are cleared, and the tax accountants aren't wanting money from you anymore.

Still I expect it would cost money to buy the assets, so if they really do not want to invest anything in that network anymore, it makes my story just a wild guess.