What is NREN?
NREN is an abbreviation from National Research and Education Network.
NREN is a telecommunications operator created to meet the needs of the country’s scientific and educational community in information and computer technology.
NREN is a:
✓ High-performance network
✓ The organisation that manages this network
Each country has its own NREN. According to the decision of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the URAN Association is the NREN of Ukraine.
All NRENs in Europe are integrated into the pan-European network of the GÉANT Association.
How is NREN different from a commercial provider?
The needs of research and education go far beyond easy access to the Internet. The scientific and educational community has special requirements for network capacity, service quality, security, reliability and accessibility. A commercial provider is able to meet such requirements only through large investments, unreasonably high for the commercial business model. These investments do not promise profits and are therefore unprofitable. In addition, a commercial provider cannot provide a research and education institution with access to GÉANT’s high-speed channels and its unique services – this is the responsibility of NREN only. Thus, the NREN and the commercial provider are not competitors, they just have different goals and provide different services.