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The academic networking company Ukerna may become a telecommunications operator in a bid to hold down the soaring cost of transatlantic Internet traffic.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England has earmarked a multi-million pound sum for Ukerna to get an international operator's licence and buy an Indefeasible Right of Use to a 155 million bit per second transatlantic fibre pair.

Malcolm Read, Joint Information Systems Committee secretary, said that over four years, 155Mbps bought wholesale would cost less than the existing 45Mbps transatlantic link.