Internet2

Not so recently have I heard about this!

The internet2 droppings: Internet2 or UCAID (University Corporation for
Advanced Internet Development) is a non-profit consortium which develops
and deploys advanced network applications and technologies, mostly for
high-speed data transfer. "Internet2" is a registered trademark. It is led
by 207 universities in the United States and partners from the networking
(Cisco Systems), publishing (Prous Science) and technology industries
(such as Comcast, Intel, Sun Microsystems). Some of the technologies it
has developed include IPv6, IP multicasting and quality of service.

Internet2 (and its members) created the Abilene Network and frequently
collaborates with the National LambdaRail (NLR) project. In fact,
Internet2 and National LambdaRail are planning to merge sometime soon,
which likely means somewhere in the 2006-2009 timeline. More information
about discussions of the future Internet2/NLR merger is available at the
official Internet2 website [1]. Another document summarizing the merger
discussions as of early July 2005 is available. Wikipedia has the detail
report.