Trans-European Networks - Integrated broadband communications The European Commission has published its final report to the European Parliament and the Council on its preparatory action in the field of Trans-European Networks: Integrated Broadband Communications (TEN-IBC), aimed at supporting the development of a framework of action in b... The European Commission has published its final report to the European Parliament and the Council on its preparatory action in the field of Trans-European Networks: Integrated Broadband Communications (TEN-IBC), aimed at supporting the development of a framework of action in broadband communications. The TEN-IBC preparatory action evolved in three phases between the end of 1993 and early 1997. Fourteen projects initially developed specifications for broadband trials that led to the actual implementation of eleven trials. Nine trials were later extended in scope and duration. The projects supported covered a wide but not exhaustive range of sectors. These included: tourism and travel retailing, medicine, engineering, design, publishing, cultural archives and citizen communications. The strong body of common findings, developed by different teams working in separate industries, is likely to apply to a wide range of environments. The experience and knowledge acquired during the preparatory action will assist participants in the European communications market in the development of business plans on broadband services and their cost-effective implementation. A number of project participants having participated closely in the experimentation of a new broadband technology - ATM or Asynchronous Transfer Mode - will, in particular, benefit from its deployment by network operators in the early part of 1998. Projects in the ACTS (Advanced Communications Technologies and Services) programme are addressing some of the remaining technical deficiencies uncovered by the TEN-IBC preparatory action. This area will, moreover, continue to be addressed within the framework of the TEN-TELECOM programme which recently launched a call for proposals for projects for the "Development and interoperation of broadband networks" (OJ No C 10 of 15.1.1998 p. 16).
