EBONE (standing for European Backbone) was a pan-European Internet backbone. It went online in September 1992 and was deactivated in July 2002. Some portions of the EBONE were sold to other companies and continue to operate today.
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The first meeting to discuss the formation of EBONE occurred on September 1, 1991. The final link in the initial backbone design of EBONE was made on Sunday September 26, 1992, between London and Montpellier. Ebone had a variety of offices around Europe, with technical center and control center in Hoeilaart Belgium and Sales & Management offices in London.
EBONE became one of Europe's leading broadband optical and IP network service providers, a Tier 1 network. On 12 July 1999, Global TeleSystems Group, Inc. (GTS) became full owner and operator of EBONE.
In October 2001, KPNQwest acquired EBONE and the Central Europe businesses of GTS and completed their EuroRings network.
Following the Dot com crash and various investigations, KPNQwest declared bankruptcy. In June 2002, it was announced that the EBONE Network Operations Center would be shut down, and the EBONE would be deactivated.
Employees in the EBONE Network Operations Center and elsewhere attempted to keep the network running for many weeks after the last possible sale of the company fell through, but eventually were told to shut down the network and abandon the building, which they did on July 2, 2002.
TO: xxx CUSTOMER CONTACT: XXX FROM: customer at ebone.com DATE: 06/JUN/2002 19:12:17 ATTN: XXX KPNQWEST TT NUMBER: 179256 KPNQWEST CONTACT: Walker CSC PHONE NUMBER: Any Queries please contact theCSC. BROADCAST MESSAGE Hoeilaart 6th of June 2002 / Message to all Ebone customers / The Administrators have not found any additional funding to continue Ebone operators and have asked personnel to evacuate the building and close down the network. Ebone employees have refused to do so and are motivated to keep the network up and running as long as possible. Ebone employees have requested the Belgian Government to help out finding a solution for the immediate future.
TO: xxx CUSTOMER CONTACT: XXX FROM: customer at ebone.com DATE: 02/JUL/2002 08:44:48 ATTN: XXX KPNQWEST TT NUMBER: 180969 KPNQWEST CONTACT: Walker CSC PHONE NUMBER: Any Queries please contact theCSC. BROADCAST MESSAGE To all our customers despite the Efforts of the 40 people at Ebone NOC these last few months to keep the network up and running our efforts have been in vain, as finally the banks and other parties concerned have stopped the proposed sale of Ebone happening.As a result of this we have now been ordered by the curators to shut down the Network.this will happen today 2nd July 1, 2002 at 11:00AM CET. I wish to thank our entire customers for their support over these last few months and only wish that things could have turned out differently.