[announce] Closure of European data network (eBone)

[Andrew Stickland <Andrew.Stickland@perwill.com>]

FAO: ebXML Transport (announce@lists.oasis-open.org)

Dear Sir/Madam,

Following the recent bankruptcy of KPNQwest, the European network eBone was
to have been sold to a UK consortium. The deal has now fallen through (see
press article below) and we have learnt that the entire eBone network is to
be shut down as of 17:00 BST today (3rd July 2002).

This closure will significantly impact the Internet throughout Europe as
eBone customers look to route their traffic elsewhere. For a period, while
this problem settles down, you may find that Internet based trading etc. is
slow or even unavailable at times. You may additionally find that some of
your partners previously using the eBone network are unavailable until they
find an alternative supplier.

With kindest regards
Andrew Stickland
Technical Services Manager
Perwill plc



===============================================================
Press Article   (http://www.silicon.com/a54305)
===============================================================
The sale of KPNQwest's European network eBone to UK consortium 
Oakley Investors has fallen through.

As a result, eBone's network will be taken completely offline 
by 17:00 BST today after the banking group behind KPNQwest's 
financing led by Citibank upped its price on the sale from £25m 
to around £45m putting Oakley out of the game

Graham Kinsey a spokesman for eBone's network operation centre 
NOC in Belgium said "The banks have done what they've been doing 
all along, playing dirty games. The Oakley guys went to Amsterdam 
yesterday to talk to the banks and were totally shocked by their 
demands."

"The banks have no options any more and neither does eBone. 
We're being shut down right now. The banks have screwed us over 
one last time and cut their throats too - they'll be liable for 
all KPNQwest's debt now."

Ian Walker, primary diagnostic engineer at the eBone NOC, 
confirmed Kinsey's statement. 

He said: "We must finish shutting down the network by six 
o'clock [Beligian time] this evening. I'm being swamped by calls 
from customers. I've just had one guy on the phone in tears."

"I know of about 1,000 customers who are going out of business 
because of this. The banks have shown a complete lack of respect 
for our customers."

On Monday evening, Kinsey was phoned by a representative from 
Oakley who expressed his disappointment at the banks' behaviour 
and told him the deal was off.

All NOC staff were ordered out of the building by security at 
around 18:00 [BST] on Monday and were not allowed to enter again 
until one hour before the shut down was set to begin this morning.

Michael Parkinson, technical director at KPNQwest customer IntelNet, 
said: "I can confirm that the network is going down - I'm watching 
it disappear as we speak. The banks are at fault here. They should 
be prosecuted. Some of our customers will suffer over the next 24 
hours as we put our backup facilities into place after being given 
just two hours notice of the shutdown."

Kinsey added: "About 75 per cent of our 42,000 customers are still 
connected to the network and about 50 per cent are still reliant on 
it. I expect there will be a general slowing down of the internet 
over the next 24 hours as even ISPs that aren't connected to the 
eBone network will be swamped with other traffic."

No one from Citibank's consortium was available to comment.


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