Pentagon Picks Team to Develop Data Network : Technology: The move is the first step in building a ‘superhighway’ for computers.

The Defense Department on Wednesday picked a consortium of government researchers and high-technology companies to take the nation’s first steps toward building a high-speed computer “superhighway”--the Information Age’s equivalent of the transcontinental railroad or the interstate freeway system.

The alliance, which marks the government’s first entry into this arena, was named just a week after President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore took office. Both men had made development of a publicly supported data network--capable of transmitting words, music, movies and much more--a top priority during their campaign.

The participants include the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and eight of the nation’s largest high-tech companies--including Hughes Aircraft and Rockwell International--research institutes and universities. With a $7-million grant from DARPA and an additional $7 million from its members, the consortium will spend the next two years developing technology and mapping out specifications and uses for the network.

Much as the railroads and freeways are credited with spurring the nation’s growth during the last century, a national electronic highway is widely viewed as a resource that would improve education, health care, research and private industry’s ability to compete in the global economy of the coming century.

How such a network would be built and who would own it remain matters of dispute among some of the nation’s most powerful technology companies, the Clinton Adminstration and public interest groups.

Private industry, led by the nation’s largest telephone companies, have argued that they should own and operate it because it poses a substantial potential threat to their existing networks. However, Gore has long supported a public network to ensure that access is widely available and that it does not become the equivalent of a private toll road, open only to business and university researchers.

The DARPA-sponsored consortium will focus its attention on a fiber-optic network capable of carrying huge quantities of computerized data over strands of glass smaller in circumference than a human hair.

“Working with the consortium’s diverse participants will enhance the technology base and systems experience necessary to support a national information infrastructure initiative,” said George Heilmeier, president of Bellcore, the telecommunications research laboratory selected to head the alliance.

Other participants include Columbia University, Hewlett-Packard, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, Northern Telecom and United Technologies Research Center.

Bellcore said the alliance plans to develop a prototype of an all-optical network as well as potential new uses for it, including full-motion video and 3-D graphics.