According to Ernet India executive director Gulshan Rai, the parleys were part of Ernet's effort to work closely with private sector to develop content for its country-wide network which hooks up several universities and R&D institutes. Also in the offing are plans to set up training centres by various IT majors across the country in association with IITs.

These centres will enable corporates to impart high-level training to teachers on networking and internet-related technologies and also facilitate wider exposure to their products and services.

To take the proposed virtual university network to all corners of the country, and make it accessible to maximum number of students and researchers, Ernet is in the process ofincreasing its point of presence in the country. The service which is available at 10 cities will be accessible in 20 more in two years time. The end of the Ninth Five-year Plan will see presence in at least 50 cities, said Rai. "Our aim is to be in every university and R&D centre in the country," Rai reiterated. Also in the offing are web hosting services for academic and research institutes.To extend its network, Ernet has got a category `A' ISP licence. However, unlike a regular ISP, Ernet would act more as a content provider and would concentrate on providing distance education and distance library applications to institutes, said Rai.

In an effort to supplement its infrastructure, Ernet has applied to ISRO for an additional transponder and will have a backbone with a mix of terrestrial and satellite-based wide area network of 8 MB and 2MB network. The number of VSATs at the disposal of the society, presently numbering 104, are also expected to go up to 300, said Rai.

Rai expects the re-enforcedbackbone to be up by June this year. This will enable Ernet to offer its service to most schools and colleges in the country, feel officials in DoE.

The upgradation and expansion cost of the network and services is expected to be in excess of Rs 200 crore, say DoE officials. While the society will continue to work on a no-profit, no-loss basis, officials are confident of generating most of the funds internally.