USA National Host press release

[David Farber <farber@central.cis.upenn.edu>]

FOR RELEASE: Monday, December 12, 1994




AMERICAN GROUP TO COORDINATE PARTICIPATION IN EUROPEAN TELECOM R&D




European Community Opens Telecom Research to International Partners




A new group, the USA National Host, has been formed to permit US
companies to participate in European advanced communications
research and development.  The USA-NH will be the fulcrum for US
participation in the upcoming European Union's Advanced
Communication Technology and Services (ACTS) Program.






For the first time, the E.U. has opened its partnerships to trans-
national firms working outside of Europe - a major contrast to
earlier R&D programs that confined all work to member states. Now,
the ACTS workplan emphasizes that telecommunications is "global in
scale and requires therefore a common understanding and a minimum
set of agreements at a global level." ACTS projects will address
technical feasibility, usefulness, desirability, and economic
impact.






The members of the USA National Host are the MIT Research Program
on Communications Policy (RPCP), University of Pennsylvania
Distributed Systems Lab, University of Illinois National Center
for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), and the National Media Lab
(NML), in cooperation with Distributed Simulations.






The USA National Host builds on current work with MIT's Networked
Multimedia Information Server (NMIS), NCSA's "Mosaic" World Wide
Web interface and related tools, Penn's "PlayPenn" activities in
distributed high-performance computing and broadband networking,
and NML's support of advanced high-capacity data storage
activities. We are collectively engaged in numerous networked
computing pre-competitive research and demonstration projects. We
are working on multimedia interface standards, intellectual
property protection, privacy and security mechanisms, on-line
billing systems, digital cash, and related areas.




The USA National Host will give participating companies a unique
and direct access to the European market, specifically to ACTS
projects. With greater access to E.U. activities, companies will
have the earliest chance of formulating advanced communications
standards and services.


USA NATIONAL HOST


   MIT Research Program on Communications Policy
   University of Illinois National Center for Supercomputing
       Applications
   University of Pennsylvania Distributed Systems Laboratory
   National Media Laboratory




For further information on membership, call Clark Johnson,


PHONE +1-617-253-4138 after Dec 21 +1-617-258-7270,  FAX
+1-617-253-7326, cjohnson@snap.org.




PRESS CONTACT:   Tom Hargadon
        phone  +1-415-861-1317
        fax  +1-415-431-9368
        foxhedge@well.sf.ca.us