Research network contract signed in Nice
An 80 million euro contract between the European Commission and the GEANT (Gigabit European Academic NeTwork) Consortium agreeing to put in place a 2.5 Gbit/s trans-European Internet backbone was signed on 6 November at the IST conference in Nice. 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. Formal adoption of the contract follows the agreement between the Commission and the GEANT Consortium at the beginning of October.