The internet began life as a network to link academics, now almost 800 higher and further education sites across the UK are to get fast, high bandwidth communications backed by Government investment of £50m over three years.

SuperJanet4, as the network is known, will provide the technological infrastructure that the education sector needs, says Michael Wills MP, Minister for Learning and Technology. It will run on WorldCom's backbone network, with development and maintenance by Ukerna, and is expected to go live by the end of the year. The network will initially run at 2.5Gbit/s moving up to 20Gbit/s by 2002.

Geoff McMullen, chief executive at Ukerna, said: "We already provide internet access to quite a few schools and local education authorities and access to the National Grid for Learning home page is via Janet, so we're already involved with the NGfL. I think it's possible that SuperJanet4 will provide more access for more schools over the next couple of years."

Richard Byatt