Following the collapse of Dutch telco KPNQwest, an estimated 100 former employees and been maintaining the Ebone network that is reckoned to carry up to a quarter of all European web traffic. Now, the unpaid heros are ready to close down their servers unless a buyer for the infrastructure comes forward.
The would-be unemployees sent out an email last night warning the closure of the network could affect web sites and emails globally "You will feel the impact of the global price increases that must result from the closure of a network of this magnitude," they said.
Ebone boasts many European ISPs among its clients, including AOL and Easynet, as well as other carriers such as C&W, AT&T and Deutsche Telekom. The remaining workers fear the clients are not taking the implications of the shut-down seriously. The workers had asked clients to fork out in advance to guarantee continued service during June, but most have refused to do so. Now they threaten to pull the plug on the network, to show how damaging the shutdown could be
Graham Kinsey, who manages the Ebone in Brussels told journalists: "The biggest corporations are the ones that do not believe that Ebone will go down. They don"t really appreciate how close we are to shutting down. Any company that has no backup will go down," he said. "Some customers may have a fallback provider, but it may not be sufficient."
KPNQwest bought the Ebone network in March this year from US carrier GTS, in a deal that stretched the company"s finances. The Dutch company filed for bankruptcy at the end of May.