As its name suggests, HARNET (Hong Kong Academic and Research NETwork) is a regional network linking up the eight tertiary institutions in Hong Kong. It also connects to other research and education networks as well as the public Internet using high-speed connections. To accommodate the growing demand on bandwidth for the arrival of the double cohorts of students in the new academic year, a series of upgrades are carried out on HARNET starting from May:

• the core routers on HARNET's data centers have been upgraded for higher bandwidth;
• the shared international Internet bandwidth has been upgraded by 50%, up from 2Gbit/s to 3Gbit/s in early September.
• the local Internet bandwidth to HKIX will be upgraded by 100%, up from 2Gbit/s to 4Gbit/s in late September.

HKUST faculty members and researchers may like to note that HARNET currently links up to the following national research and education networks:

• ASGCNet (Academia Sinica Grid Computing Center)
• ASNET (Academic Sinica Network)
• CERNET (China Education and Research Network)
• KREONET (Korea Research Environment Open Network)
• TEIN3 (Trans-Eurasia Information Network)