 | |
 XS4ALL office at Sloterdijk, Amsterdam | |
| Industry | Internet service provider |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | Hacktic Net |
| Founded | Hack-Tick and NEABBS (1993) |
| Founder | Felipe Rodriguez-Svensson Rop Gonggrijp Paul Jongsma Cor Bosman |
| Defunct | 2022 |
| Headquarters | Netherlands, Amsterdam |
| Services | Internet, TV and Telephone |
| Parent | KPN |
| Website | https://www.xs4all.nl/en/ |
XS4ALL was an Internet service provider (ISP) in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1993 as an offshoot of the hackers club Hack-Tic[1][2] by Felipe Rodriquez, Rop Gonggrijp, Paul Jongsma and Cor Bosman, while based in Amsterdam. It was the sixth provider in the Netherlands (after NLnet, SURFnet, HCC!hobbynet, Knoware and IAF)[3] and the second company to offer Internet access to private individuals. Initially only offering dial-in services via modem and ISDN, it later expanded to offer dial-up access as well as ADSL, VDSL, and fiber-optic (FTTH) services as well as mobile internet (but no calling or texting). The name is a play on the English pronunciation of access for all.
As of 2007, XS4ALL was one of the larger ISPs in The Netherlands. In 2005, the company had a turnover of 86.1 million euro, realising a 15.4 million euro profit before taxes. Also in 2005, XS4ALL employed 327 people (325 FTE) and served 265,000 private subscribers. The company is known for its willingness to take on controversial issues; has taken legal action against spammers, and fought over other legal issues in court, such as Scientology vs. the Internet.
XS4ALL was sold to KPN in December 1998, but remained an independent subsidiary.[4][2] In January 2019, KPN announced that it would eventually phase out the XS4ALL brand and continue operations under the KPN brand.[5][2] KPN stopped offering services with the XS4ALL brand name on 24 December 2021, and will migrate existing customers to KPN infrastructure during 2022.[6]
A petition and a special action commission was started to try to revert this decision, the petition has been signed over 50,000 times, signatories include ex-board members and founders of XS4ALL. In November 2019 the committee launched a new company named Freedom Internet, meant to serve as an ideological successor to XS4ALL, and supported by a crowdfunding action that raised 2.5 million euro.[2] Freedom Internet initially offers e-mail hosting, and rolled out its first DSL connections in 2020.
- ^ "Wie wij zijn" [Who we are]. xs4all.nl (in Dutch).
- ^ a b c d Nagtegaal, Bastiaan (11 November 2019). "Geestelijk opvolger XS4ALL gaat Freedom Internet heten" [Ideological successor to XS4All will be named Freedom Internet]. NRC Handelsblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 11 November 2019.
- ^ "Ted Lindgreen, de ware pionier met TCP/IP en NLnet" [Ted Lindgreen, the true pioneer with TCP/IP and NLnet] (PDF) (in Dutch). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-04-15.
- ^ "XS4ALL wordt onafhankelijke dochter KPN" [XS4ALL becomes independent subsidiary of KPN] (in Dutch). XS4ALL Blog. 17 December 1998.
- ^ "KPN zet vol in op KPN-merk" [KPN goes all-in on KPN brand] (in Dutch). KPN. 10 January 2019.
- ^ Julian Huijbregts (20 December 2021), "KPN stopt per 24 december met merknaam XS4ALL voor nieuwe klanten" [KPN to stop using XS4ALL brand name for new customers on 24 December], Tweakers (in Dutch)