562 



85 



The ESPIRIT progranme, put in hand within the framework of the EEC, 

 should make it possible to solve some of these problems in the short 

 tenn, particularly those which concern compatibility of equipment 

 and software in the different European countries^. The question 

 will arise once again in the case of exchanges between European, 

 American and Japanese laboratories. An experiment on the on-line 

 transmission of data via a commercial telephone cable is, however, 

 under way as a cooperative project undertaken by Fermi lab and the 

 University of Tsukuba. 



The purpose of a further experiment will be to link via satellite 

 the data base of the information Centre of the Nagoya Plasma-Physics 

 Institute with an equivalent data base in the USA. It will be noted 

 on this point that the potential of satellite transmission is very 

 high and should provide increasingly better and cheaper means of 

 communication. Encouragement should be given at this time to 

 exploring the ways by which the scientific community can take 

 advantage of the new economies brought about by these new 

 technologies and, therefore, the broadest set of potential options 

 should be reflected in the planning. 



7 It should also be noted that the Commission of the European Communities 

 Intends to implement a large-scale programme of action for the balanced 

 development at European level of the telecommunication sector, the 

 objective of which, inter alia, is to place at the users' disposal, under 

 the best possible cost and time conditions, the equipment and services 

 most likely to meet their future requirements. 



