A chunk of the million will come from Denver-based Qwest communications Inc, a phone carrier that is allocating 6.25 per cent of it's 16,000-mile fiber optic network to the high speed project. Cisco Systems and Northern Telecom limited will also provide support.

The whole concept of the Internet2 stems from the need for greater speeds, faster connectivity and more dependability. When the project crystallises, it will have the capability to transmit the contents of the 30-volume Encyclopedia Britanica in a single second.

As of now though, the experiment is limited to institutes, universities, hospitals,corporations and government agencies. In short, it aims to be an academic and US government research-only network, separate from the increasingly commercialised current Internet. However, it is expected to trickle down for commercial use sooner or later.

Critics though are condemning it as one big corporate welfare plan. The aim is to bring the network alive by the year end. The network promises to be of good use for commercial and academic users. And offloading institutional traffic from the commercial Internet will result in speedy transmissions for both Internet and Internet2 users.

And this next generation Internet is going to be at least a 1000 times faster than the current one.

The chief point of concern is that the Internet2 is very, very US centric and reeks of what may be called cyber-racism. You can participate in it's architecture, conceptualisation and design only if you are an American.It's a case of by the Americans, for the Americans and of the best technology, excellent speeds,progressive features... in short, the best in the world.

As Vijay Mukhi, one of India's top technologists, puts it, ``America has realised that today you can rule the world only if you are a super-power in telecommunications. So they're developing this new technology which is going to be only for their use and within their reach. The rest of the world will get it too in due course, but at a heavy price.''

It is still not clear if the Internet2 will be incorporating all the sites and more, like the current Net apart from it's superior features. But one thing is definite, that the Internet2 is going to touch other boundaries much, much later. Unless of course others too decide to start pooling in their brains and resources on such a magnanimous project.

And for a country like India to acquire this Internet2, you need brains to work dedicatedly on the concept and companies to fund it generously. But in India, unfortunately the Net is not given as much monetary and research importance. Like in the US, it isthe computer and Net companies who are doing best on Wall Street.

Most people in India though are ignorant about this development. When contacted, Raj Saraf, the CEO of Zenith computers said that he hadn't heard of the existence of anything like the Internet2 and did not think it would be happening in the near future.

As for VSNL, both the GM Amitabh Nanda, and MD, B K Syngal were away and could not comment on the matter.