RMXJ%CORNELLA.BITNET@berkeley.edu (09/23/85)
To Jon Postel, Mark Crispin and other interested parties: At the EARN (European Academic Research Network) Technical Meeting in Geneve, Switzerland last Thursday and Friday, we discussed moving EARN (which connects to BITNET via two international lines paid for by IBM) to X.400. In fact, we *MUST* do so. The PTTs (Post Office, Telephone, and Telegraph) which own and operate *ALL* the lines in Western Europe have demanded that EARN migrate to an X.400 network in conformation with the ISO and CCITT recommendations. EARN has until the end of 1987 to accomplish this. Work has started to be progressed in this area. It was decided to use a product that is coming out of Heidelberg to accomplish this migration. EARN is almost in every country in Western Europe. By the end of the month, the final connections to the remaining countries will be complete. On Monday, Greece will connect from Crete to Italy, and Finland will connect from FINHUT (the Finnish Helsinki Institute of Technology) to Stockholm, Sweden and Belgium will connect up from Brussels to Paris, France. Anyone interested in communicating with the technical coordinators in EARN should write to me and I will put you in touch with them. There is one technical coordinator in each country as well as a European Master Coordinator (EMC). -- Gligor Tashkovich EARN Internetwork Consultant