Letter to a friend
from Jean Devos
48
Dear Bob,
I am writing this letter to you, Bob, on September 11, 2002. Needless to say that my heart is with you. Since this terrible event the world is in poor shape. We have difficulty to see in which environment we are now walking. The road ahead is not too clear. We have lost our lighthouse. We have lost our confidence in the future. I clearly remember, with some emotion now, this beautiful party to which I was invited by AC1, at the very top of the World Trade Center. It was within the second part of 1997, and a gorgeous evening! AC1 was clearly a commercial success, and the plan was to become global, to become Global Crossing. The carriers would not invest anymore in their own network. They would instead enjoy all the advantage of buying capacity at demand, as needed. That was the new gospel; the new paradigm… but there was not a single carrier attending this party! Whoever was raising some question, some doubt, was just swept out as a backward-looking person. That evening, I must say, I came out very impressed, by the entre-