STOCKHOLM -- With the help of Telia International Carrier, the GÈANT-network is now fully operational and the official launch on the 22st of May will put EU ahead of the US when it comes to capacity in research-networks. The GÉANT-project is co-funded by the European Commission and the network provides a powerful infrastructure with high speed IP-connection between universities throughout Europe. Telia International Carrier has provided GÈANT with network capacity with speeds ranging from 34 Mbps to 10 Gbps. The connection from Scandinavia to UK and Germany is 10 Gb lambdas (DWDM), to Poland and Czech Republic it is 2,5 Gb lambdas (DWDM) and the Baltic states to Stockholm via SDH. "We are very proud to be an important part of establishing one of the most sophisticated IP backbones ever built in Europe," says Erik Heilborn, President of Telia International Carrier. "I believe that we got the assignment in this prestigious project due to our financial stability, technical know-how and our commitment to high quality of service."GÉANT is the most advanced research-network of its kind. It reaches over 3,000 research- and education institutions in over 30 countries and provides the highest capacity on the market. GÉANT is set up by a consortium of 27 European national research and education networks, with DANTE as its co-ordinating partner. Its goal was the improvement of the previous generation of pan-European research network, TEN-155, by creating a backbone at Gigabit speeds.Telia AB