Every dollar spent by NSF on the backbone service is matched by more than four dollars from Merit and its partners. Further, each of these dollars has yielded an investment at least ten times larger in regional and campus networks. Mr. Chairman, the bottom line is, every Federal dollar has stimulated at least a forty-dollar investment in an emerging technology critical to the nation's international competitiveness. With a small expenditure of federal funds, the government has spurred the development of an entirely new set of technologies and applications that will dramatically enhance our ability to compete in world markets. Third, a new industry has begun to develop in which the United States not only leads technologically, but in the market.
American companies lead the world in internet technology, and are growing rapidly.
Merit and ANS are simply two of the many organizations in this rapidly growing marketplace. In keeping with the goals of the High Performance Computing and Communications Program, the NSF program has been an extraordinary success in stimulating the growth of a critical new technology. The program grew from a federal government commitment to seed an infant technology, was helped and nurtured by a committed partnership of educational and research institutions, state government and private enterprises, and it is now demostrating its potential. Already, the United States is the world leader in exporting this new communications technology and its many related applications. Those increased exports are making a positive difference in our balance of payments.