Major Internet moves help Europe's research future
European research is to benefit from an 80 million euro contract agreed by the European Commission with the GÉANT Consortium to put in place a 2.5Gbit/s trans-European Internet backbone. GÉANT has already launched its tendering process to procure the necessary capacity and points of presence in 30 countries and so network operations should begin early in 2001. Additional moves to extend these high-speed links from Europe to the research backbones of the USA and Asian regions are foreseen at later stages of the project. Commenting on the move, European Commissioner for Enterprise and information society, Erkki Liikanen, said that it demonstrated clear progress towards the advent of Internet II and the implementation of the eEurope agenda. 'The ambition of the Feira European Council to evolve European research networks to 100 Gbit/s or more in the near future represents a further 40-fold increase in capacity: the real issue will be the impetus that this can bring to the research community of Europe in a cost efficient way,' he said. The move is also seen as a key step in establishing firm foundations for the European Research Area (ERA) proposed by Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin. Meanwhile, a meeting of European telecommunications ministers in Luxembourg on 3 October helped bring the information society a step closer by agreeing to unbundle the local loop. Approval from the European Parliament and ratification from Member States is required for corresponding legislation, but it is nonetheless expected to be brought into force by January 2001. It will be a key element to the eEurope agenda, as it will make access to the Internet cheaper and easier for European users.
Kraje
Luxembourg