Belief in bandwidth

The Academia Europaea and the European Science Foundation have called for continued and new investment in a high bandwidth computer network

in Europe.

The joint statement urges the national authorities that provide the bulk of investment for academic and research networking to come together and, with the European Commission, to ensure that European infrastructure can catch up with that in the United States.

In May, funding for the present Ten-155 Network (Trans-European Network at 155 mbit/sec core) runs out. The European Commission will need to continue funding if this network is not to collapse. At the same time, funding decisions are needed so that the successor to Ten-155, the so-called Geant network, can become operational (at multi gigabit/sec) by the end of the year.