Letter of 10 September 1990 from Stephen S. Wolff, Division Director of NCRI, National Science Foundation, to Douglas E. Van Houweling, Merit Network, Inc., regarding the subcontracting of services for the NSFNET Backbone.

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION
1800 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20550

Division of Networking and Communications Research and Infrastructure

September 10, 1990

Dr. Douglas E. Van Houweling
Merit Computer Network
5115 I.S.T. Building
2200 Bonisteel Blvd.
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-2099

Dear Doug:

This letter responds to yours of the 28th June, concerning Merit's plans to establish a not-for-profit corporation with its partners.

NSF agrees to MERIT's assigning the existing joint studies with MCI and IBM to the new corporation.

NSF agrees to MERIT's subcontracting services to the new corporation. Although the new corporation may thus become the actual provider of the NSFNET Backbone, NSF will continue to deal with MERIT under the terms of the existing Cooperative Agreement.

The specific concurrence of NSF's Division of Grants and Contracts has been obtained in the above two paragraphs.

NSF agrees that the new corporation may solicit and attach to the NSFNET Backbone new users, including commercial users, and may connect them to new or existing nodes on the Backbone, with the understandings that:

1) such users will reimburse the new corporation for at least the full average cost of the connection, the added traffic, and additional related support, and

2) the reimbursements will be used to enhance the network infrastructure and services, in order that the level of service provided by MERIT under its Cooperative Agreement with the NSF not be diminished.

NSF and MERIT will agree on the technical means of compliance with 2) above.

Sincerely,

(Original Signature)

Stephen S. Wolff
Division Director