<nettime> XS4ALL's independance to continue under new agreement with KPN

[Patrice Riemens <patrice@sarai.net>]

Q&D translation of the press release by XS4ALL dated December 21, 2001.


XS4ALL and KPN have reached a new agreement regarding the autonomy of XS4ALL 
within the KPN Holding. After the purchase of XS4ALL by KPN (the former Dutch 
telekom monopoly, Tr) an agreement was reached with the former shareholders 
to the effect that KPN would be contractually bound to respect the autonomy 
of XS4ALL on a number of crucial issues, and this for a period of three years.

This period ended on December 18, 2001. XS4ALL is pleased to announce that 
KPN has agreed on new guidelines, thereby giving a permanent basis to the 
agreement.

It concreto, this means that XS4ALL wil retains its own public relations 
channels and spokespersons. It will remain free to profile itself on societal 
issues, for instance those relating to security, privacy, spam, and freedom 
of expression. Another important feature of the agreement guarantees the 
continuing independance of XS4ALL in matters of technical architecture and 
infrastructure, this in order to safeguard the innovative role XS4ALL is 
playing in the technology realm for the Internet community. This also means 
that XS4ALL will be (cq remain) free to do business with KPN's competitors, 
eg. cable operators and other DSL providers. 

The current board structure will be altered in so far that the board of 
directors will become an advisory board. Felipe Rodriquez, founder of XS4ALL 
and one of the current directors, will remain as an advisor.


Original in Dutch: http://www.xs4all.nl/nieuws/overzicht/akkoord.html

cheers from Delhi, 
patrizio

#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net