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EOF Minutes
by pichon＠rain.fr 18 Aug '94

18 Aug '94

Second European Operators Forum 15 July 1994 Chaired by Peter LOTHBERG Minute took by Marc PICHON Hosted by TRANSPAC FRANCE Montparnasse Tower Paris Dear EOFers, This is the minutes for the Paris eof meeting, 15 July 1994. Marc ============================================================================= Marc PICHON pichon(a)rain.fr Phone # 33 1 40 75 07 11 TRANSPAC Fax # 33 1 40 74 02 87 206, rue du faubourg Saint Honore 75008 Paris, France ============================================================================== PARTICIPANTS Name Organization Email Peter LOTHBERG PL EBONE roll(a)stupi.se Bernard TUY BT RENATER tuy(a)renater.fr Stephan BIESBROEK SB BELNET stephan(a)belnet.be Christophe CHAILLOT CC France Telecom chaillot(a)cedre.france-telecom.fr Marc PICHON MP TRANSPAC/RAIN pichon(a)rain.fr Van Phuong NGUYEN VN TRANSPAC/RAIN nguyen(a)laba.rain.fr Nigel TITLEY NT British Telecom NIGEL.TITLEY(a)AXION.BT.CO.UK Jean-Michel PLANCHE JP OLEANE jmp(a)oleane.net Keith MITCHELL KM PIPEX keith(a)pipex.net Frode GREISEN FG EBONE frode.greisen(a)uni-c.dk Alain PEGORARI AP France Telecom pegorari(a)cedre.france-telecom.fr Gilles ANTOINE GA TRANSPAC antoine(a)rain.fr 1 ADMIN 1.1 EXCUSES Excuses were received from Daniel KARRENBERG and Per Gregers Bilse. 1.2 MINUTEMAN Marc PICHON volunteered !!! 1.3 APPROVAL OF THE PREVIOUS MINUTE The Lars-Johan LIMAN's minute is approved. However, the word "NATIONAL" (chapter 1.6) should be removed. 2. TRAFFIC AND ROUTING EXCHANGE MODELS BETWEEN PROVIDERS After KM gave his talk(Emailed by KM the 12th of July 1994 on the eof-list) here are the comments made by the participants: FG: In EBONE we have such agreements but they could be a problem because of: - non English speaking people - the juridic aspects, however, they are still useful. PL: The scalling process is very important, we need guide, samples. PL: What does mean "Non-Transit" ? PL: How do we troubleshoot the network ? PL: Email is not an Internet Service. PL: The two parts should optimize the backbone usage. PL: CIX is not relevant but as an example. PL: No need to differentiate NATIONAL and INTERNATIONAL if we define what transit means. PL: How do we proceed to fix problems between operators? FG: Could we have example of real agreements that have been writing down, Are they public ? KM: It is difficult to describe every problems but we could describe a few as transit, third party, back up, .... So, it will be possible to solve local problems using standard. SB: Neutral Interconnection could solve most of the problems. KM: We need a document defining relations in neutral interconnect. How do we define a route server ? KM: Neutral Interconnect are not described in this document. Who pays for the facility management ? PL: By management we mean the guy who resets the router or take care of the modem. In Europe, the Phone Companies take care of the modem. KM: We expect a new version of this document before 6 weeks from now. Conclusion: KM and PL will work on this document. 3. Connectivity from Europe to other continents via the US. Canceled due to the absence of Bernhard Stockman. 4. WHAT ROLE WILL THE US NAPs PLAY IN THE GLOBAL INTERNET The NAPs (Network Access Point) will be operational by November 1994. The NAPs are sponsored by the US government but the customer will have to pay to be connected. Three NAPs are forecast: a) in California using SMDS technology b) in Chicago using ATM technology c) in New york using FDDI, Bridge and Ethernet technologies. At this time we do not know if the networks DOE and NSI are going to get a connection to a NAP and to which NAP. As the NSF Backbone will disappear soon the problem is now: in order to get full connectivity to the rest of the world to which NAP should we connect? A rule of thumb will be to follow the same politic as the big networks. 5. ROUTING REGISTRY ARCHITECTURES Canceled due to the absence of Daniel KARRENBERG. 6. D-GIX ISSUES, A COMMON INTERFACE BETWEEN NSPs. At this time the only routing technology that runs fine is based on routers. But now, there is a need for a more efficient and flexible technology, in particular the D-GIX. If you have a global exchange routing point you can change from one service provider to the other without spending too much money. Also, the route service has to act on the level two to allow source routing . But it is possible to overcome this drawback by putting a router on an ethernet with the ability to talk to other routers on the same ethernet. That way is used in Stockholm with five differents services providers and it is planned to be the same in Paris. The drawback of this configuration is that many people have to be contacted for any change in the configuration. 7. CIDR AGGREGATION OF LARGER BLOCKS The CIDR aggregation had permit to reduce the size of the routing tables. These aggregations were usually made by the regional service provider but now the internet is facing a new increase in the size of the routing table. To be more efficient this aggregation should be done at a higher level. For example, we know that the networks numbers from193.x.x.x to 194.x.x.x are dedicated to europe and on the other end the networks numbers from 198.x.x.x to 199.x.x.x are dedicated to the US. So, it seems to be possible to announce these routes with only four routes, but how ? The problem is under discussion but we need good suggestions. The route server cannot do any aggregation. We could renumber and by this way have as much routes as AS number (around 600). 8. EOF CHARTER SB: The EOF report should be sent also to the ripe-list to overcome the limitation of the eof-list. PL: The Internet is not only a US infracstructure so the EOF should be the European equivalent of the IEPG. FG: The EOF should act as a European part of the IEPG. FG: The words "Internet-related networking services" in the chapter "Open Membership" should be replace by "ip-service". FG: Also the sentence with "... touristic or educational interests ..." should be rephrased. FG: It will be better to separate the historical notes. NEXT AGENDA (needs suggestions) Election of a new Chairman. PL will stay chairman until the next meeting, meanwhile every proposition for a new chairman are welcome. TROUBLE TICKET HANDLING Touble management Procedure, use AS number, use prt.traceroute, ... INTERNET MAP How to draw the world starting from a router AS table. Next meeting 12 September 1994, from 9 to 12,30 in Lisbon just before the next ripe meeting.

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RARE Update 12
by dekker＠rare.nl 11 Aug '94

11 Aug '94

Apologies for the cross-posting A RARE UPDATE no. 12, July 1994 (Double Summer issue) COA Information RARE members gathered in Darmstadt, courtesy of ESOC, on 19 and 20 May 1994. Meetings included a joint meeting with the EARN Board of Directors dedicated to the proposed merger between RARE and EARN and subsequently the 29th CoA meeting. The joint meeting was perceived as very constructive. The Executive Committees of both organizations had provided the members with draft Statutes, Rules and Regulations, a Charter, a Technical Structure and a budget, encompassing proposals for membership fees and voting rights. The conclusion of the meeting was that the merger was feasible and should take place still during 1994 and this event is scheduled to take place at the event of the next (and last) RARE Council of Administration meeting on 20 October 1994, in Amsterdam. A call for a new name for the merged organization has been issued and several proposals are under investigation. During the CoA meeting, the RARE accounts were - as is traditional in May - presented and 1993 financial year was closed with the approval of the Council of Administration of the accounts 1993. Two networking organizations were unanimously accepted as RARE Full National Members: UNICOM-B from Bulgaria and UNIBEL from the Republic Belarus. The CoA has asked the Executive Committee to reorganize the RIPE NCC's management structure by the creation of a management body that is representative of the whole customer base in order to enhance cooperation with the RIPE NCC's commercial customers. This management body will be involved in the fund raising for the RIPE NCC. RARE Technical Programme The most recent main event for the RARE Technical Programme was the INET'94/JENC5 conference, organized by RARE and the Internet Society (ISOC), which took place in Prague in mid-June. All the RARE Working Groups took the opportunity to meet at the conference and were able to present their work to visitors from across the whole world. The Working Group on network operations (WG-NOP) was relaunched under its new convenor, Manfred Bogen. The new convenors of the Working Group on Information Services and User Support (WG-ISUS), Dave Hartland, and the Working Group on Network Security (WG-SEC), Ruediger Grimm, were able to introduce themselves in person. Also at the conference, the final stages of two RARE projects were reported. The task force on Computer Emergency Response Teams has presented plans for a European coordination centre for liaison between the front-line support organizations dealing with network security incidents. This is now being developed into a business plan (which will be the subject of a call for tender) for approval by the CoA on 20 October 1994. The project of the Working Group on Character Sets, which is developing software for conversion between a wide variety of coded character sets, was presented at the conference in the form of a live demonstration of the conversion program. Two new RARE Technical Reports are in the course of production. RTR12 on Writing O/R Names is a revision of the guidelines of the Working Group on Mail and Messaging (WG-MSG) which takes into account recent international standards in this area. RTR13 is a Status Report on Network Information Retrieval, a regularly-updated report which gives an overview of the "state of the art" in this field. RTR8, 9, 10 and 11 are currently available in printed form and can be ordered from the RARE Secretariat. RARE has recently entered into contracts with INRIA to work on the integration of directory-service access with the World Wide Web. RARE is also contributing to the support and development of the World Wide Web project which is seen as a key element in the development of information services for researchers. Looking to the future, RARE has launched its UPTURN (Umbrella Proposal for Telematics for Users and Research Networks) initiative to encourage participation in the European Union's Fourth Framework Programme. The Fourth Framework offers the possibility of European funding to assist in collaborative projects between commerce and researchers which will result in the delivery of telematic services which add to the productivity of industrial and academic researchers. RARE is providing information on the programme and is assisting in the information exchange between potential participants via its UPTURN mailing list. To join this list, send electronic mail to mailserver(a)rare.nl containing the text: SUBSCRIBE UPTURN your-first-name your-last-name replacing your-first-name and your-last-name as appropriate. Once you have joined the list, you can send mail to the other subscribers at the address upturn(a)rare.nl. A large, common RARE Working Groups Meeting is planned for December 1st and 2nd, in London, subsequent to EARN's NSC conference, November 28-30, 1994. Information about the UPTURN initiative, and about RARE's technical programme, can be obtained from: - ftp.rare.nl (by anonymous FTP) - gopher.rare.nl (by gopher) - http://www.rare.nl/ (by World Wide Web) Conferences and Seminars INET'94/JENC5 RARE's annual Joint European Networking Conference (JENC5) was held this year in Prague (Czech Republic), in conjunction with the Internet Society's (ISOC) annual INET conference. In every respect it was considered a great success. The participants numbered around 1200 and came from over a 100 different countries. The Czech Technical University and the Czech Educational and Scientific NETwork (CESNET) were responsible for the local arrangements. They furnished the terminal room with over 70 workstations, terminals and desktop computers with worldwide Internet connectivity. The technical staff also supported the connectivity in the demonstration area, where up to 12 highly advanced networking applications were presented to the public at large. With the support of various sponsors leased lines with a total capacity of 2.5 Mbit/s connected the conference centre to the rest of the world. This connectivity allowed interactive Mbone broadcasts of the plenary sessions of the conference to hundreds of sites in many countries. That the conference was a truly global event also became apparent in the more than 100 presentations and panel discussions in six different topical areas: user support and training, distributed applications, policy issues, regional issues, network engineering and network technology. The programme presented the developments in technology on ATM, Multimedia, IPng, Routing and Addressing, Network Information Tools, Broadband Technology, Performance Analysis, Electronic Documentation, Networked Simulation and Virtual Reality and Future Generations of Internet Technology, to mention only a few of the subjects covered. These new technological developments, and the exponential growth of networking in the last few years are bringing past side issues to the foreground. Policy issues are becoming more and more important with the increasing number of active Internet users and its broader scale. Also new user communities are emerging every day, and each of them has their own specific demands with regard to service, support and training. The conference proved a good discussion platform for all of these important issues. A full set of proceedings was distributed at the conference and a number of selected papers of high quality are being prepared for publication in a special issue of Computer Networks and ISDN Systems. Preceding the conference there was a one day tutorial on ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode), organized and sponsored by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). The week prior to the conference the workshop for Technologically Emerging Countries took place at the Czech Technical University. A selected number of participants (approx. 170) from around 80 countries had the unique opportunity to learn how to access and use worldwide Internet resources, as well as build and manage national networks in their own countries. The Soros Foundations funded participation of many Eastern European and CIS attendees. RARE, with the financial support of NATO, took direct responsibility for the Network Navigation and Services Track. JENC6 With the Prague event still fresh in memory, preparations have already been made for next year's conference that will take place in the new Dan Panorama Convention Center in Tel Aviv, Israel from 15-18 May 1995. The Programme Committee, under the leadership of Jose Barabera (FUNDESCO, Spain), has already prepared a Call for Papers that is available from jenc6-sec(a)rare.nl. The conference theme, "Bringing the World to the Desktop", may be looked upon as a metaphor for two major changes under way: - the increasing penetration of daily research/educational work and practices by networks and networking technology; - the new set of requirements that desktop networking implies for the underlying technology and the structures of service provision. The goal of this conference is to survey the current situation in networking, to illuminate major unresolved issues and technologies, but most of all to stimulate discussion on possible future directions. The local arrangements are taken care of by ILAN. Further information For more information about RARE contact: Internet: raresec(a)rare.nl or kiers(a)rare.nl X.400: C=nl; ADMD=400net; PRMD=surf; O=rare; S=kiers X.400: C=nl; ADMD=400net; PRMD=surf; O=rare; S=raresec fileserver: gopher.rare.nl, ftp.rare.nl or http://www.rare.nl/

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European email users
by Denis.Russell＠ncl.ac.uk 08 Aug '94

08 Aug '94

Does anyone have any figures for the number of email users in Europe? (I know about Marten's DNS counts, but this is a different question). Denis. Denis Russell email: Denis.Russell(a)ncl.ac.uk Computing Service Tel: (+44) 91 222 8243 University of Newcastle Fax: (+44) 91 222 8765 Newcastle upon Tyne Telex: 53654 UNINEW G NE1 7RU ENGLAND

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Visas for Lisbon RIPE meeting
by Anne Lord 04 Aug '94

04 Aug '94

If you need a "letter of invitation" to the forthcoming RIPE meeting in Lisbon in September, can you please let us know as soon as possible. This may take longer than usual due to the August holidays, so it is better organised now than later. If you need a letter, please send a message to <ncc(a)ripe.net>. Thanks, Anne RIPE NCC ------------

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new position at EUnet NOC in Amsterdam: Senior Technical Staff Member
by Glenn.Kowack＠eu.net 25 Jul '94

25 Jul '94

To All RIPE List Inhabitants; Please re-distribute and forward this announcement as appropriate. regards, Glenn ____________________________ Job Posting and Call for Applicants ----------------------------------- Senior Member of Technical Staff, EUnet ----------------------------------- The EUnet European Network Operations Center in Amsterdam has an po- sition open for a Senior Member of our Technical Staff. The posi- tion will report directly to the EUnet Managing Director in Amster- dam, and will work locally with EUnet Amsterdam Network Operations Center staff and remotely with EUnet national networks' technical staff throughout the greater European region. The position's duties include: ------------------------------------------------- - Direct technical support for EUnet European operations. - Indirect technical support for EUnet national operations. - Technical analysis and reporting. - Development and refinement of EUnet services and procedures. - Network planning both at the NOC and across Europe, including recommending future technical directions, network topology, and purchasing of equipment, services, and telecommunications media. - Evaluation and development of high-level services. - Participation, in a leadership role, in EUnet technical meetings. - Technical coordination with other international and national networks, and representation of EUnet at external meetings and technical conferences as required (e.g,. IETF). Candidate Qualifications and Professional Background: ----------------------------------------------------- - Significant experience in international or national level network operations and planning, including: - network system hardware and software technology, - protocols, routing, network management, and related technologies, especially the Internet suite of protocols and their use (familiarity with OSI protocols is a plus), - unix system internals and administration, - trouble desk operations, - network architecture, - operational planning and management, including budgeting and purchasing specification, - high-level service design and use, and - user support. - A technical degree in a related field such as Computer Science, Engineering, or Mathematics. - Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to lead technical staff dispersed throughout the European region, and to work closely with other international networks and networking organizations. - Sensitivity to user needs and requirements. - Fluency in both written and spoken English (fluency in one additional European language is preferred). - Willing and able to travel. Other Considerations -------------------- EUnet operates in an environment which depends upon efficiency, reliability, energy, and creativity. The successful applicant will enjoy a challenging, fast-moving environment which will exercise a broad range of skills, and be able to adapt to a varying work load and schedule. The applicant should be able to work independently, and also via the network with many different people within the European region and around the world. EUnet and Internetworking in general are undergoing significant change and rapid growth. The senior technologist who fills this job will have significant impact on the future directions and technical character of EUnet. EUnet offers competitive salary and benefits. Please Direct Enquiries To: --------------------------- Glenn Kowack Tel: +31 20 592-5109 EUnet Fax: +31 20 592-5155 Kruislaan 409 E-mail: office(a)eu.net 1098 SJ Amsterdam The Netherlands Applications should include detailed CV and work history. The Organization ---------------- EUnet is the leader in providing pan-European commercial Internet services and connectivity. In operation since 1982, EUnet today consists of 30 national networks ranging from the Nordic countries to Northern Africa, and from Iceland to Vladivostok. The EUnet user community consists of over 10,000 sites and networks. EUnet provides the full suite of internet-related services such as Electronic Mail, File Transfer, Remote Login, Network News, and Archive Access, WWW and related services, as well as X.400 and other services. EUnet is a member of the CIX Association, The ISODE Consortium, RARE, and RIPE. ______

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Re: Bangemann Commission Document available from the Web
by Nadine Grange 19 Jul '94

19 Jul '94

Please remove my e-mail address from your replies on my initial announcement of the availability of the Bangemann's report. The DG13 has set up a generic address to receive comments on the Bangemann's report: rcu1(a)dg13.cec.be Please use it. Thanks, /Nadine

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None
by Ljubomir Marchev 19 Jul '94

19 Jul '94

Dear ALL, I`m looking for more information on Novell DOS 7 API. Particularly for multitasking API to **taskmgr**. Also, I`m looking for more information for all the Cyrix 486 processors, especially for internal registers, etc. May somebody help me ? ------------------------- Ljubomir Marchev Institute Of Mathematics Sofia Bulgaria

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Bogus in-addr.arpa NS RRs
by Erik-Jan Bos 19 Jul '94

19 Jul '94

RIPE List, Hostmaster, maybe you already heard about this, but please be aware that there is bogus in-addr.arpa info out there. This is really service affecting, we already had some major complaints at SURFnet. Can Hostmaster please contact the site SCITEX.COM (SCITEX Corp. Ltd., 8 Oak Park Drive, Bedford, MA 01730). After this is done w'all need to flush some caches I am afraid. Thanks to Hans van Staveren for forwarding this to us. ------- Forwarded Message Date: Tue, 19 Jul 1994 15:30:36 +0700 From: Hans van Staveren <sater(a)cs.vu.nl> To: netmaster(a)surfnet.nl Subject: [Joseph Malcolm: ns.nasa.gov handing out bogus information for IN-ADDR .ARPA] Hiero - ----- Forwarded message # 1: Received: from top.cs.vu.nl by zephyr.cs.vu.nl id aa00497; 19 Jul 94 1:56 MET DST Received: from zephyr.cs.vu.nl by top.cs.vu.nl id aa00721; 19 Jul 94 1:55 MET DST Received: from hearnvax.nic.surfnet.nl by zephyr.cs.vu.nl id aa00491; 19 Jul 94 1:55 MET DST Received: from ruulet (ruulet.let.ruu.nl) by HEARNVAX.nic.SURFnet.nl (PMDF V4.2-12 #3330) id <01HEVGFQPSHS00F9Z4(a)HEARNVAX.nic.SURFnet.nl>; Tue, 19 Jul 1994 01:55:56 +0200 (MET-DST) Received: from relay1.UU.NET by ruulet.let.ruu.nl (PMDF #2703 ) id <01HEVGFEP3PS001J58(a)ruulet.let.ruu.nl>; Tue, 19 Jul 1994 01:55:40 GMT Received: by relay1.UU.NET (relay) id QQwzdk19431; Mon, 18 Jul 1994 19:06:46 -0400 Received: from odin.UU.NET by relay1.UU.NET with SMTP (relay) id QQwzdk19427; Mon, 18 Jul 1994 19:06:44 -0400 Received: by odin.UU.NET (maildrop) id QQwzdk16643; Mon, 18 Jul 1994 19:06:37 -0400 Date: Mon, 18 Jul 1994 19:06:37 -0400 From: Joseph Malcolm <jmalcolm(a)uunet.uu.net> Subject: ns.nasa.gov handing out bogus information for IN-ADDR.ARPA To: bind(a)uunet.uu.net Errors-to: postmaster(a)let.ruu.nl Reply-to: bind(a)ucbarpa.berkeley.edu Message-id: <QQwzdk16643.199407182306(a)odin.UU.NET> X-Envelope-to: binders(a)cs.vu.NL Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT If any name server administrators out there have been wondering where those bogus records for in-addr.arpa have been coming from, I think I have an answer. (This also explains why the nifty-neato login in newer binds to throw bogus info away isn't working - of course a root server can be trusted for in-addr.arpa...) I've reached someone at the Internic, who will get ahold of the appropriate parties at NASA. jmalcolm@odin [/apps/dns/etc] 1-227> dig @128.102.16.10 in-addr.arpa ns ; <<>> DiG 2.0 <<>> @128.102.16.10 in-addr.arpa ns ; (1 server found) ;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch ;; got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 10 ;; flags: qr rd ra; Ques: 1, Ans: 1, Auth: 1, Addit: 1 ;; QUESTIONS: ;; in-addr.arpa, type = NS, class = IN ;; ANSWERS: in-addr.arpa. 555875 NS ird.scitex.com. ;; AUTHORITY RECORDS: IN-ADDR.ARPA. 555875 NS ird.scitex.com. ;; ADDITIONAL RECORDS: ird.scitex.com. 172800 A 149.115.100.3 ;; Total query time: 5110 msec ;; FROM: odin.UU.NET to SERVER: 128.102.16.10 ;; WHEN: Mon Jul 18 18:40:33 1994 ;; MSG SIZE sent: 30 rcvd: 100 - ----- End of forwarded messages ------- End of Forwarded Message __ Erik-Jan.

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Re: Bangemann Commission Document available from the Web
by P.Bryant 16 Jul '94

16 Jul '94

In message Wed, 13 Jul 94 12:48:12 BST, Toerless Eckert <Toerless.Eckert(a)INFORMATIK.UNI-ERLANGEN.DE> writes: > >> A very obvious aspect of the Bangemann report is that it at several >> places and in emphasized typography claims that the development of the >> European Information Highway should be a fully market driven effort >> and that governmental subsidies should be avoided. Rings some bells ?-! >> Not being a politician I might completely have missinterpreted the fine >> tunes of the report though :-). > > What is a market anyway ? Is education, research, real-estate, housing, > welfare, etc pp a market ? There are many opinions and many different > ways to interpret such things and the EU usually has jet another > interpretation. > > Toerless > > P.S.: GOVT SUX BUT remember what happened when an EU initiative was not market driven. Remember GOSSIP. I have a tender request in front of me from a Government department which demands GOSIP compliance. They want some PCs on a LAN connected to a data-base UNIX engine with access to JANET. All because of EU legislation attempting to lead rather respond to the market. With IP the project would be trivial. Otherwise where do I get GOSIP software for a PC? I can just about get it for X.400 and X.29 but FTAM? You will also need a gateway to Couloured book or IP to get into JANET. Paul. Paul Bryant. Rutherford Lab, Chilton, Didcot, OX11 0QX, GB Tel. +44 235 445 267 Fax. +44 235 446 626

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The Bangemann report.
by boss＠it.kth.se 15 Jul '94

15 Jul '94

I have picked some parts of the Bangemann report and appended below as a response to previous comments. Please note the section on Internet at the end. It of course recommended that those interested should take part of the full report available on-line as has been announced. One could question the influence this report will have. The group consisted of some major European industrial leaders and Bangemann (German commisionair ?) who was, I think, suggested as one of the many candidates to replace Jaques Delors. Bernhard. ======================================================================== An Action Plan - summary of recommendations This Report urges the European Union to put its faith in market mechanisms as the motive power to carry us into the Information Age. This means that actions must be taken at the European level and by Member States to strike down entrenched positions which put Europe at a competitive disadvantage: - it means fostering an entrepreneurial mentality to enable the emergence of new dynamic sectors of the economy - it means developing a common regulatory approach to bring forth a competitive, Europe-wide, market for information services - it does NOT mean more public money, financial assistance, subsidies, dirigisme, or protectionism. In addition to its specific recommendations, the Group proposes an Action Plan of concrete initiatives based on a partnership between the private and public sectors to carry Europe forward into the information society. ................................. An Action Plan This Report outlines our vision of the information society and the benefits it will deliver to our citizens and to economic operators. It points to areas in which action is needed now so we can start out on the market-led passage to the new age, as well as to the agents which can drive us there. As requested in the Council's mandate, we advocate an Action Plan based on specific initiatives involving partnerships linking public and private sectors. Their objective is to stimulate markets so that they can rapidly attain critical mass. In this sector, private investment will be the driving force. Monopolistic, anticompetitive environments are the real roadblocks to such involvement. The situation here is completely different from that of other infrastructural investments where public funds are still crucial, such as transport. This sector is in rapid evolution. The market will drive, it will decide winners and losers. Given the power and pervasiveness of the technology, this market is global. "THE MARKET WILL DRIVE ... THE PRIME TASK OF GOVERNMENT IS TO SAFEGUARD COMPETITIVE FORCES...." The prime task of government is to safeguard competitive forces and ensure a strong and lasting political welcome for the information society, so that demand-pull can finance growth, here as elsewhere. By sharing our vision, and appreciating its urgency, Europe's decision-makers can make the prospects for our renewed economic and social development infinitely brighter. ............................. The Group recommends Member States to accelerate the ongoing process of liberalisation of the telecom sector by: opening up to competition infrastructures and services still in the monopoly area removing non commercial political burdens and budgetary constraints imposed on telecommunications operators setting clear timtables and dead lines for the implementation of practical measures to achieve these goals. ........................ The Group recommends a review of the European standardisation! process in order to increase its speed and responsiveness to markets. - Urgent action to adjust tariffs Reduction in international, long distance and leased line tariffs will trigger expansion in the usage of infrastructures, generating additional revenues, and simultaneously giving a major boost to generic services and innovative applications ........................... The Group recommends as a matter of urgency the adjustment of international, long distance and leased line tariffs to bring these down into line with rates practised in other advanced industrialised regions. Adjustment of tariffs should be accompanied by the fair sharing of public service obligations among operators. ............................ New basic services are needed New basic services such as e-mail, file transfer and interactive multimedia are needed. The necessary technology is available. New networks are developing, such as ISDN, eliminating the present limitations of the telephone network. Two basic elements are needed for such services: unambiguous standards and critical mass. The attraction of a telecommunications service depends directly on the number of other compatible users. Thus, a new service cannot really take off until a certain number of customers has subscribed to the service. Once this critical mass has been achieved, growth rates can increase dramatically, as in the case of INTERNET. INTERNET is based on a world-wide network of networks that is not centrally planned. In fact, nobody owns INTERNET. There are now some 20 million users in more than 100 countries. The network offers electronic mail, discussion fora, information exchange and much more. INTERNET is so big, and growing so fast, that it cannot be ignored. Nevertheless, it has flaws, notably serious security problems. Rather than remaining merely clients, we in Europe should consider following the evolution of INTERNET closely, playing a more active role in the development of interlinkages.

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