· On January 21 members of the SURA Crossroads Partner Development Team met with our project consultants, Geo/Matrix, to review first draft proposals from the five potential partner finalists (Global Crossing, Level3, Southern Telecom, Velocita and Williams Communications). ITC Deltacomm has removed itself from the partnership process and has agreed to partner with the remaining potential partners to provide local access within its serving area. As a group, the proposals were viewed as disappointing. As most of you are well aware, the telecommunications industry has been especially hard hit by the recent downturn of the stock market. Global Crossing is now in bankruptcy and two of the other finalists are in questionable financial condition. Concurrent with the financial difficulties of these companies there is a great deal of activity within the national advanced academic networking community that has the potential to result in some new options for inter-GigaPoP connectivity within the US and within the SURA region.

· Given these rapidly developing circumstances it seems prudent to use the upcoming SURA IT Committee meeting on Thursday, February 14 to inform the full IT Committee of the status of the Crossroads Initiative and seek their advice before continuing with detailed discussions with the potential partners. As a result the partnership discussions that were scheduled to take place between January 21 and February 8 have been postponed. The Partner Development Team will meet on Monday, February 11 with the Geo/Matrix consultants to develop a set of options for discussion by the full IT Committee.

· On January 23, 2002, SURA moderated a panel discussion at the Southern Growth Policies Board annual conference, "The Digital Divide Reconsidered: Building Telecom Value". This panel discussion included presentations from four SURA member institutions, Virginia Tech, Mississippi State University, the University of South Carolina and the University of Central Florida. SURA also provided an overview of the SURA Crossroads Initiative. These presentations focused on the importance of advanced academic networks as a driver for economic development. Each of the participating institutions contributed to the development of a joint paper, coordinated by SURA that described a specific initiative, led by their institution that highlighted the value of advanced networks to economic development initiatives. This joint paper, "Research and Educational Networks as Drivers of Economic Development" and the presentations developed for this panel discussion are now available.

· Late last year, SURA distributed a Network Connectivity Cost Survey. Thirty-two of the fifty-seven institutional surveys have been returned completed. This survey represents our attempt to understanding the aggregate cost of the connectivity services of our members. The aggregate information from these surveys is being used to influence how potential partners view the SURA community as an important market. This information will also be used to help determine the economic feasibility of a region-wide shared network service. Individual institutional information provided through responses to these surveys will be held confidential. It will not be shared with vendors or other members of SURA. Only aggregate information will be used in the SURA Crossroads feasibility study. If you haven’t already completed the connectivity cost survey for your institution, please take the time necessary to return this completed survey to gcrane@sura.org as soon as possible.

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