An experimental high-speed communications network is being set up in Canada to develop new service capabilities for the much-touted information superhighway. The project is designed to promote collaboration on new applications like tele-medicine and distance education, say the involved parties. The national and regional Experimental Test-Bed Network will be sponsored by the non-profit, Vancouver-based Canarie Group Inc, a group of over 100 private and public organisations created to develop the country’s next generation of telecommunication networks. Canarie will contribute $1.9m to the first stage of the initiative. Long-distance phone carrier alliances Stentor and Unitel Communications Inc will donate national network connections worth $7.5m with a matching contribution coming from regional sources across Canada, says Canarie. The first participants will be regional networks based in Ottawa and British Columbia, with interconnections scheduled to be in place in July. The organisers say that they hope to enlist all major regional networks by year-end. The announcement follows the launch of OCRInet, Canada’s first broadband Asynchronous Transfer Mode research network last November and Stentor’s Beacon Initiative to upgrade members’ local telephone networks to provide broadband capability.
