A group of 16 European phone companies has launched a pilot European Asynchronous Transfer Mode service with a capacity of over 34Mbps. The pilot is the result of the trial of the technology announced last year (CI No 2,253). The service is primarily a technical trial, according to British Telecommunications Plc, one of the participants. We’re testing out the water and feeling into the standards process as well. Things like delays in packetisation, what to do with congestions – all the standard Asynchronous Transfer Mode problems. The consortium says it is talking to around 100 pilot users and has already signed up a ‘major multinational’ via France Telecom. In the long term, banks are expected to be the network’s major customers. To start with, however, the major users will come from the academic community – SuperJanet in the UK is already signed up. We’re not yet ready for commercial customers – it is a pilot and obviously the system could break down, said British Telecom. The pilot is designed to enable the participating companies to tailor services to particular client demands. It will finish at the end of next year, when the individual phone companies will be free to set up their own services outside the pilot network – although the majority have said they would rather continue in co-operation. The consortium members include the Austrian PTT, Belgacom, British Telecom, Deutsche Bundespost Telekom, France Telecom, Helsinki Telephone Co, Norwegian Telecom, Portugal Telecom, PTT Finland, Telecom Italia SpA, Tele Danmark A/S and Telia AB.
