(pd/cm) As part of a first Swiss pilot scheme, from now on students and staff at ETH Zurich can surf the net without cables, even outside the campus. That this has become possible is thanks to Switch, the Swiss Education and Research Network (1). In order to offer the new service Switch looked for Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs), which were prepared to link their networks to those of ETH Zurich, the University of Neuchâtel and the University of Applied Science in Winterthur to mutually ensure internet access.

Switch has launched the pilot phase, due to run for at least six months, with three WISPs, namely Monzoon Networks, The Public Network (TPN) und TheNet (2). This means that everyone who works or studies at one of the three institutions can access the internet without a cable connection wherever these providers have a hotspot, for example from Zurich Airport, Technopark or the ice-rink Resega in Lugano, giving them unlimited and protected access to their personal e-mails, data and diaries. There are more than 700 hotspots in Switzerland that can be accessed without a cable connection. In return, the clients of the three provider partners can access the internet via any hotspot of the three universities in question (3).

According to Martin Sutter, Head of the domain Network Based Services at Switch, this pilot scheme is the first of its kind in Europe. Owing to the co-operation between the academic networks and public hotspots, he said, a further milestone had been reached on the way to realising the vision of e-Academia, a network of the university community irrespective of the location, thanks to innovative computer engineering services.