Fiber optic company Rodin Fiber is on the verge of bankruptcy

The Groningen fiber optic company Rodin Fiber is heading for bankruptcy. The company connects customers under the name ViberQ and is the commercial branch of Rodin Broadband Groningen, which already went bankrupt in June.

It is no coincidence that Rodin Fiber is now also going bankrupt, says administrator Jan Hein Mastenbroek to RTV Noord on Wednesday. “They are connected in a group of companies. I think the bankruptcy of Rodin Broadband Groningen was the last straw. Rodin Fiber also had difficulty getting the networks ready. That did not work out as planned.”

Rodin Fiber was busy connecting addresses in Groningen villages to the fiber optic network. The company dealt with the so-called ‘gray areas’. These are addresses that are somewhat profitable. Rodin Broadband Group, or RBG, dealt with the more remote ‘white areas’, which are less commercially interesting.

Mastenbroek expects that existing Rodin Fiber customers will retain access to their connection, just like RBG customers. “As a curator and administrator, I have sufficient money to ensure that this happens. In principle, the customers will not notice anything.”

Customers who have yet to be connected have less certainty. The administrator cannot guarantee that all addresses can be connected. Mastenbroek does think that he can find a buyer for Rodin Fiber’s network. “I expect the buyer to further expand the network. But we will have to see who will and who will not be connected in the near future.”

In 2017, the province of Groningen made forty million euros available for the construction of ‘super-fast internet’ in the province, especially in rural areas. Rodin was ordered to begin construction at the end of that year. RTV Noord wrote at the time that the project should be completed in 2018. In October last year, Rodin stopped installing fiber optic cables after a series of setbacks and disagreements with the Province of Groningen.