Institutions in the south west are creating a united front - but they are not necessarily all doing the same thing.

Institutions across the south west are bidding to get all education and commercial organisations wired up to the national academic network SuperJANET.

Universities and colleges which are already part of the network are pressing for lease line arrangements that would enable FE colleges and schools to pay an annual fee rather than paying for each modem call.

Exeter and Plymouth universities, which between them manage SuperJANET connections to the south west, are also calling for a relaxation of licensing rules, which prevent commercial companies from using the network.

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According to Laurie Burbridge, Exeter's director of information technology services, adding further education institutions, schools and companies to the network's traffic may make it necessary to increase the speed of connections and the bandwidth. But the cost of upgrading the system would be worth it for the sake of improved communications between education providers and the business community "All sorts of possibilities for European funding are being explored. The problem is that only parts of the region are deemed to be an area of special need by the European Union," he said.

Meanwhile, a new high-speed communications link joining Bristol University, the University of the West of England, and the Hewlett-Packard European Research Laboratories in Bristol, has been set up.

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The link is thought to be Britain's first Metropolitan Area Network involving universities and an industrial research laboratory. It is expected to provide faster digital communications between educational and research organisations in the Bristol area, better links to national and international networks and new opportunities for research and teaching, particularly in multimedia.

It should also leave Bristol well placed to benefit from plans eventually to base SuperJANET on a high-speed route that will connect Metropolitan Area Networks across the country.