Despite the fact that France, West Germany, Sweden and Spain have together bought 40% of Computer Sciences Corp’s Infonet international network service, they are ploughing on with the idea of building a separate Managed Data Network Service. A total of 22 European PTTs and telecommunications operators have signed a memorandum of understanding to operate a […]
Despite the fact that France, West Germany, Sweden and Spain have together bought 40% of Computer Sciences Corp’s Infonet international network service, they are ploughing on with the idea of building a separate Managed Data Network Service. A total of 22 European PTTs and telecommunications operators have signed a memorandum of understanding to operate a pan-European Managed Data Network Service offering a one-stop-shopping service by next January. The signatories to a contract agreed in Berlin on September 9, have pledged financial commitment to develop and sell cross-boundary leased lines within Europe and to guarentee network management – all from a single point of contact for the customer. A joint company will be formally inaugurated at the beginning of next year although shareholding and constitutional arrangements have yet to be finalised. To date the consortium is limited to participants from 19 European countries although informal discussions are understood to have taken place with some of the US regional Bell operating companies. Professor Tjakko Schuringa, Director for Telecommunications at the European Commission said that an umbrella network built on a common implementation of the X25 protocol will stretch across all the member countries providing links into each national packet switched networks via powrful protocol conversion. Present discrepencies in the X25 implementations of various PTTs currently inhibit interconnection of these networks, said Schuringa, who claimed that the Managed Data Network Service will stimulate and subsidise European networking on Open Systems Interconnection standards. A Telecom Eireann official said the European academic community is being offered a pilot test service immediately, to be administered by the Dutch PTT; it will be transferred onto the Managed Net once a controlling company has been established. Other customers are being sought by a Managed Net scouting team. The channelling of data traffic through a common umbrella network will make value added data services a lot cheaper – equivalent services would otherwise only be possible with the advent of fully blown integrated digital services. A team of value-added data suppliers will also benefit from the cheaper leased line rates, and an official from General Electric Co’s GE Information Services welcomed the move by Euro-PTTs to open up the telecommunications infrastructure.
