Administrators for KPNQwest, one of Europe's largest fibre-optic
networks, have urged customers to pay up by tonight, otherwise the
network will close tomorrow.
Many customers have either already paid bills for May and June or
have offered to pay what they owe immediately, a source close to
the administrators said.
KPNQwest carries up to 40% of European internet traffic and signed
a number of contracts with blue-chip customers this year, before
filing for bankruptcy at the end of May.
They include Hewlett-Packard, which signed a three-year,
multimillion-pound deal for the carrier to host its European
network, Opodo, the major new portal for a consortium of European
airlines and Dutch airline KLM.
The trustees want to keep the KPNQwest running this month and
possibly through July, giving them more time to find a buyer and
customers more time to find an alternative carrier.
It is unclear what impact a shutdown by KPNQwest would have as many
customers have already switched to other networks.
Italian internet service provider Tiscali is a major KPNQwest user,
while United Pan-Europe Communications group is seeking an
alternative route for its Chello broadband internet service in the
Netherlands.
WorldCom, BT Ignite, and even Global Crossing Holdings, which has
its own financial troubles, are targeting KPNQwest customers.
Parts of the KPNQwest network have already gone down, according to
Web portal company Lycos Europe, which is connected to the KPNQwest
network in several of its locations.
"I am not sure what happened, whether it was KPNQwest or one of
their suppliers, but part of the network was switched off last
week," said Frank Weller, chief technology officer for Lycos
Europe. "Our data traffic is taking different routes now. We had
fallbacks in place."
Dutch company Hit Rail, which manages IT and data communications
projects for 14 European railway operators, signed a deal with
KPNQwest at the end of March, for a 16-country, 29-site virtual
private network and implementation.
Two sites were live when KPNQwest toppled. Hit Rail is now talking
to alternative suppliers, said Antonio López, Hit Rail's director
of network services.
"We have not received any news from KPNQwest since last Friday. My
account manager, who was based in France, was dismissed on Monday.
We reopened negotiations with suppliers," he said.