Viatel

This article is about the United Kingdom Telecommunications company. For the Australian data service, see Videotex#Australia.

Viatel is a London-based telecoms operator. It was founded in 1991 by Martin Varsavsky and had operated a 1700 kilometer fiber optic network connecting several cities across the United Kingdom during the mid-1990s, before filing for bankruptcy protection in the early 2000s.[1]

In May 2013, Viatel was purchased by the Irish telecoms operator Digiweb.[2]

History

Viatel was founded in 1991 by Martin Varsavsky. In 1994, it went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Four years later, Varsavsky sold his stake in Viatel for US$200 million and left the company.[3]

In 1999, Viatel's market capitalization was valued at US$1.2 billion.[4] At that time, Viatel's second-largest outside shareholder was George Soros while the largest outside stake was held by the global telecommunications company COMSAT.[5]

On May 2, 2001, Viatel filed for bankcruptcy protection after being unable to repay its debts of over US$2.6 billion.[6]

In 2002, creditors swapped their loans for 97% of the company's shares. Its new funding was raised by several investors such as the American investment bank Morgan Stanley.[7]

In May 2013, Viatel was purchased by the Irish telecoms operator Digiweb.[2]

Infrastructure

As of 2013, it owns over 8,500km of fibre optic network connecting 21 cities in Western Europe. The company provides high speed bandwidth services, dark fibre and co-location to customers with large capacity requirements. It also offers Ethernet, dark fibre and leased line services to national and international telecom operators, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), virtual network operators, content hosters and financial service industry firms.[1]

Alleged involvement in mass surveillance

Documents provided by Edward Snowden and seen by Süddeutsche Zeitung revealed that several telecom operators, including Viatel, have played a key role in helping the British intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) tap onto worldwide fiber-optic communications.[8]

External links

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Company Overview of Viatel Global Communications Ltd.". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Digiweb Group acquires Viatel and VTLWaveNet". Capacity Magazine. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
  3. ↑ Brown, Eric. "The Connector". Forbes. Retrieved 4 August 2013. Martin Varsavsky has created three. In 1991 he launched Viatel, a pan-European telco that went public on the Nasdaq in 1994; he had put $230,000 into it, and he sold his stake later for $200 million. In 1998 he left Viatel to start Jazztel, a telecom network listed in Spain, and in the bubble his 20% stake was worth $1 billion.
  4. ↑ "Undervalued Viatel?". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 4 August 2013. Viatel, a global provider of telecommunications services, has operations and assets in Europe much like those of KPNQwest. Yet Viatel's market cap is a mere $1.2 billion compared with KPNQwest's $19 billion
  5. ↑ TEITELBAUM, RICHARD (17 February 1997). "Viatel A Cautionary Tale Wall Street Heavy Hitters Like George Soros Are Backing This Small, Shaky Telecom Outfit--But That Doesn't Mean You Should Too". CNN (Fortune magazine). Retrieved 4 August 2013.
  6. ↑ "Viatel seeks bankruptcy protection". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
  7. ↑ Wray, Richard. "Viatel emerges from bankruptcy protection with new funding". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
  8. ↑ John Goetz and Frederik Obermaier. "Snowden enthüllt Namen der spähenden Telekomfirmen" (in German). Süddeutsche Zeitung. Retrieved 2 August 2013. In den internen Papieren des GCHQ aus dem Jahr 2009 stehen sie nun aufgelistet: Verizon Business, Codename: Dacron, British Telecommunications (codenamed "Remedy"), Vodafone Cable ("Gerontic"), Global Crossing ("Pinnage"), Level 3 (codenamed "Little"), Viatel ("Vitreous") und Interoute ("Streetcar").