No subject

Sat Feb 27 04:03:44 UTC 1999

In your white paper "UK Academic Network Architecture" (p27 of 42)
at http://www.ja.net/documents/net_arch.html I find the following:

    11.2 Commercial Sector

   The commercial sector has to date shown very little interest in the
   provision of a pervasive educational network on a national basis. This
   was a clear outcome from the market test in 1996 and is thought by  
   most to still be the case even though the market has changed
   considerably with many new Internet Service Providers. The Deloitte
   Touche value for money study, commissioned by the JISC and delivered  
   in October 1996 made a very clear statement that the benefits arising
   from JANET heavily outweigh the costs. Some of the Deloitte Touche
   assumptions now seem a little exaggerated, but there is general 
   acceptance in the community that JANET is good value for money, a view
   frequently voiced by those in other educational sectors who have  
   attempted to buy similar services on the open market. Most people   
   involved in UK Academic Networking believe that the provision and
   co-ordination of national service by a not for profit organisation is
   the right approach.

Might I ask what is at the following URL, if not a concrete proposal
indicating significant interest from a commercial organisation? I
wonder, if UKERNA did not stand to gain quite so much by ruling out
collaborating with commercial organisations in meeting UK academic
and research community networking requirements, would you perhaps
have made reference to it?

http://www.edex.net.uk/whitepaper/nen.htm

The board of INSnet has a considerable history of service to the
UK academic and research networking community through past
association with the University of Kent in Canterbury and UKnet
(subsequently EUnet GB).

Martin Cooper
Speaking for myself...