KPN buys UK leg of KPNQwest

Dutch telecoms group KPN has agreed to buy the British assets of its failed networking joint venture KPNQwest. The KPNQwest network, once valued at 42bn euros, went bankrupt earlier this year and was eventually shut down in July. Since then, KPN has bought parts of KPNQwest, including the Dutch network and a data centre at the Hague. It is in talks to buy other assets in Belgium and an undersea link between Europe and the United States. KPN, along with troubled US phone operator Qwest Communications, set up KPNQwest just over three years ago. When the joint venture went bankrupt, KPN initially supported the fund set up to keep it in operation. When the operation was closed down, it moved to buy up assets in various European countries. Because of the way KPNQwest was set up, the liquidation of assets was handled by a complex network of receivers in different European countries, hampering any efforts to deal with the network as a whole. The main asset KPN has bought from the company's UK administrators -- for an undisclosed price -- is a 500km fibre-optic network connecting London with Paris and Amsterdam. The whole KPNQwest operation once carried up to a quarter of European IP traffic, and boasted customers including HP and Dell.

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