 having one homogeneous network rather than a 155Mbit/s data rates. collection of national ones (Huber, 1991). RACE I started in 1988 and ended in 1992. The initial funding from the EC was set at ECU 550 million. Further funding of ECU 11.3.3.4 Supplier initiatives 489 million was added in 1992 to take the programme through to 1994, and this is known as RACE II. EFTA countries are also There have been several telecommunications initiatives within Eu- involved, supported by additional EFTA funding. Several hundred rope, driven by suppliers, a few of these being as follows (Patel, companies and organisations are taking part, and they are expected 1992c): to match the EC contributions SO the total funding is about ECU 2 billion. The European Broadband Interconnect Trial (EBIT), which There are three types of projects within RACE: was started in 1989 with the aim of developing a switched broadband network across Europe to support the RACE pro- 1. Part I projects. The aim of these projects is to establish the gramme. Several PTOs from CEPT countries were involved. conceptual feasibility of IBC, working closely with interna- The International X.25 Infrastructure (IXI), which is provided tional standards making bodies. by PTT Telecom of The Netherlands. It uses leased lines from 11/10 The telecommunications industry Commercial service Installation Field trials Experiments Phase 2 Phase 1 Figure 11.4 RACE programme leading to IBC commercial service other PTOs in order to provide a high speed backbone intercon- Feb. 1982. Mercury Communications Ltd. was licensed to run a necting national research networks. Some funding for this came network in full competition with BT. The company began from the CEC's EUREKA COSINE programme. investing heavily in its infrastructure. Safeguards were intro- 3. ETSI is defining standards for the Connectionless Broadband duced to ensure equitable access arrangements between Mer- Data Service (CBDS), which is a variation of Bellcore's cury and BT. SMDS, based on IEEE 802.6. The aim is to enabl