__________________________________________________________________

                  * *      A bi-monthly electronic news bulletin
                 *   *     reporting on the activities of DANTE,
                *          the company that provides international
               *           telecommunications services for the 
THE WORKS OF D A N T E     European research community.

No.3, April 1994           Editor: Josefien Bersee
__________________________________________________________________
                                
* DANTE SHAREHOLDING EXPANDED *
                               
On 25 March 1994, the DANTE Shareholders meeting took place in 
Amsterdam. At the meeting the ownership of the company was 
formally transferred from RARE to the Shareholders. RARE had been 
the legal owner and only shareholder of DANTE in the first year of 
its existence. During the meeting RARE was formally discharged of 
all responsibility for the company, with the new Shareholders 
acknowledging RARE's important role in setting it up. The chairman 
thanked RARE for its support.

When issuing the Shareholder Certificates to the organisations 
which had signed the final Shareholders Agreement the company 
secretary, Boudewijn Nederkoorn from SURFnet, said: "This is an 
historic occasion which marks a major step forward in pan-European 
service provision for the research community".

The following persons were appointed on the new Board of 
Directors: Klaus Ullmann (DFN, DE) as a Director for a period of 
three years and as Chairman of the Board; Boudewijn Nederkoorn 
(SURFnet, NL) and Fernando Liello (CNUCE, IT) as Directors for a 
period of three years, and Juergen Harms (SWITCH, CH) as a 
Director for a period of two years. The new Board will make a 
proposal for a fifth Director, who is to be approved by the 
Shareholders. The Operational Unit Steering Committee, which was 
originally set up by potential shareholders of DANTE to manage the 
creation of the company, will be wound up as it has now completed 
its task.

The organisations which had signed the Shareholders Agreement at 
the time of the meeting were: SWITCH (Switzerland), DFN (Germany), 
HUNGARNET (Hungary), CNUCE (Italy), SURFnet (Netherlands), 
NORDUnet (Nordic countries), FCCN (Portugal), ARNES (Slovenia), 
HEFC(E) (on behalf of the UK). Organisations from other countries, 
including Belgium, Spain and Greece, which had been unable to sign 
the Agreement before the meeting, are still expected to do so.
                                      
* EuropaNET: THE LATEST DEVELOPMENTS *
  
In co-operation with CEENet, the Central and Eastern European 
Networking Association set up in January 1994, DANTE has prepared 
a plan for the development of international connectivity in 
Central and Eastern Europe. The plan takes account of the 
financial and other support that is likely to be available from 
ACOnet, NORDUnet and the CEC's PHARE Programme. Implementation of 
the plan, which outlines general principles as well as details for 
individual countries, would represent a significant step forwards. 
DANTE has offered to set up all the interconnections which include 
EuropaNET if the plan goes ahead. The document is available from 
the DANTE gopher server (EuropaNET directory).

The 2 Mbps line between Amsterdam and Washington (finally) came 
into operation on 17 March 1994. Dai Davies, DANTE general 
manager, commented: "This was an unusually challenging activity 
and the effort required from DANTE to do so is a sad reflection on 
the difficulties that still exist in getting international line 
providers to organise simple things." The line was ordered in 
November 1993 and was originally planned to be operational by 
January 1994.

Since the beginning of April, EuropaNET is capable of exchanging 
routing information with its peers on the basis of the new version 
of the Border-Gateway-Protocol (BGP-4). Version 3 of the protocol 
does not support Classless Interdomain Routing (CIDR), which 
offers routers the possibility to aggregate routing entries. As 
routing tables in the Internet were becoming too big to be handled 
within a router, there was an urgent need to migrate to BGP-4.

* CALL FOR TENDER MailFLOW *

An open Call for Tender for the provision MHS-Coordination, 
MailFLOW, has been issued by DANTE. MailFLOW is currently provided 
on behalf of DANTE by SWITCH, the Swiss research network. The 
purpose of the tender is twofold: on the one hand to give other 
providers a chance to step forward and on the other hand to 
introduce a competitive element in the Service provision.

Tender requirements are available from the DANTE gopher server, 
in the MailFLOW directory (under Applications Services). The 
deadline for submitting proposals is 30 June 1994.

* HIGH SPEED PROGRESS *

As reported in the previous "Works", in January DANTE secured 
approval in principle from the EuroCAIRN (European Co-operation 
for Academic and Industrial Research Networking, a EUREKA Project) 
Project Board for a proposal to produce a study report, the target 
of which is to specify information and requirements necessary to 
support funding proposals and the formal procurement of a high-
speed backbone. 

EuroCAIRN now has enough financial commitments to pay for the 
proposed study report. Preliminary contract negotiations have 
already started with the CEC. DANTE is prepared to start work 
immediately following the next EuroCAIRN meeting if a contract is 
approved.

* DISCUS, NEW NAME FOR A FAMILIAR SERVICE *

Last month CONCISE, the information server set up as part of the
COSINE project, was renamed DISCUS. A new name has been 
introduced to mark the beginning of a new period: in 1994 Level-7 
will be providing the service on behalf of DANTE. 

The main issue in the Information Services area is to define which 
role DANTE should play in offering pan-European information 
services which are not yet available from other sources (and which 
would be commercially viable). In parallel, the future 
possibilities of DISCUS will be addressed.

* DANTE GOPHER INSTALLED *

A first set of information on the company, staff and services is 
now electronically available from the DANTE gopher server 
, see "Information on DANTE and its activities". 
An important future aim of the information server is to present on 
a regular basis a range of relevant statistics relating to 
EuropaNET. DANTE is currently looking into the definition and 
production of such statistics.

* EuropaNET POSTER AVAILABLE FROM DANTE *

A full-colour poster of the EuropaNET network is now available and 
can be obtained by sending a message to DANTE 
(dante@dante.org.uk).

__________________________________________________________________

DANTE - Lockton House - Clarendon Road - Cambridge - CB2 2BH - UK

tel +44 223 302992   fax +44 223 303005  e-mail dante@dante.org.uk
__________________________________________________________________