Because of its geographical location and international functions, Austria plays a key role in the communication of data between East and West. To be able to fulfill this role, Austria had to develop both its own data communication infrastructure and also provide international links to various data communication services abroad. Not only did the necessary hardware infrastructure have to be built up but this had to be accompanied by necessary administrative procedures and managerial arrangements. Because the development process in this especially fast changing field had not been completed by the time of writing, this report describes the present status of this process. In this paper a detailed description of the various Austrian data services, their technical characteristics, availability, costs, and necessary administrative procedures is given with special emphasis on the international aspects of these services. Since technical characteristics, tariffs, and organizational arrangements change rapidly, this paper should only be used as a guide to provide general information and should not be considered as a reference
