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

No.15, June 1996           Editor: Josefien Bersee
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TEN-34: THE CONTRACT IS SIGNED

TEN-34 is 'official'. On 16 May 1996 the European Commission signed
the contract with the TEN-34 Consortium for the establishment of a 
34 Mbps interconnect infrastructure between the European national
research networks. The first phase of the project consists of a
Technical Specification defining the topology and related 
implementation aspects. The network will be known as TEN34-NET.


CONNECTIVITY TO JAPAN

DANTE has reached agreement with NACSIS, the Japanese research
networking organisation to set up a direct 2 Mbps connection 
between EuropaNET and Japan. The new connection will give  a major 
improvement in connectivity between researchers in Europe and 
South-East Asia. The connection is planned to become operational 
later this summer.


INCS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR DANTE

BT in collaboration with MCI have announced a new, global transit
network which will include multiple 34/45 Mbit/s trans-continental
and intercontinental circuits and which will start to become 
operational by the end of 1996.  As an interim step, BT is establishing 
a European network called INCS which has a T3 (45 Mbps) connection to 
the US (to be supplemented with a second US connection at E3 (34 Mbps) 
capacity) and which is being offered as a commercial service from 
July 1996.

INCS and IBDNS (the network service which BT supplies to DANTE to
support the pan-European component of EuropaNET) will share the same
physical infrastructure and a number of changes will be made to IBDNS 
internal routing which will bring benefits to EuropaNET customers 
through exploitation of the additional capacity installed for INCS. 
INCS will eventually be integrated into the planned BT/MCI global 
network.

DANTE AT EEMA

From 11-14 June 1996 DANTE was present at the Annual Conference of
the EEMA (European Electronic Messaging Association). A DANTE stand
at the exhibition served to increase visibility of DANTE's
activities, in particular in the directories area. Within the EEMA
the importance of directories has increased substantially. NameFLOW-
Paradise is the largest distributed public X.500 directory in Europe 
and therefore DANTE's (and the national research networks') expertise 
in this area is regarded by EEMA as a valuable contribution to its 
work. Vincent Berkhout, who manages the NameFLOW-Paradise service 
in DANTE, has been appointed by EEMA as project manager to take the 
EEMA's activities in this area further.


NEW STAFF AT DANTE

In June three new staff members started work. Applications Engineer
Eduardo Garcia Lopez (ES) will take on the work in the Security area.
He was previously employed by Telefonica R&D in Spain and TINA-C in
the US, working on network management and security. Because of the
increased workload resulting from contract management (e.g. such as
PHARE R&D Networking, EuropaNET and TEN-34), financial management has
become a full-time occupation: Matthew Scott (UK) is DANTE's new
Commercial Manager. Thirdly, Floria De Martino (UK) has started work
as Secretary/Administrator, taking over from Heather Wilkin, who left
DANTE in May 1996. 


DANTE ANNUAL REPORT 1995 AVAILABLE

DANTE's third Annual Report, covering 1995, is available. As in
previous years the report contains an overview of DANTE's activities
during the year as well as the official 'Report and Accounts' for
1995. To receive a (free) copy send a message to dante@dante.org.uk
referring to 'AR 1995' (please include your postal address if it is
not part of your message).

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