Who is looking: The California Video Over IP Consortium, whose members are the California State University System, the University of California System, the California Community Colleges, and the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, a nonprofit group that operates the California Research and Education Network, known as CalRen, which functions as the backbone network for all academic research and educational activities in California.

What they are looking for: To replace a generation of videoconferencing equipment that officials say is becoming too expensive to operate. The CalRen network is being upgraded with optical fiber that the consortium has purchased. When the upgrade is finished, the network will be capable of handling frequent, high-quality videoconferences throughout the state.

Equipment and services purchased under the contract will be used to create a videoconferencing network compatible with standard Internet Protocol, or IP, networks. (The current system uses a reliable but older technology that many colleges, including those in California, are eliminating.) Officials say the statewide infrastructure will be designed to handle 10 or more simultaneous videoconferences originating from a single campus, although campuses may schedule fewer conferences than that. The network is also expected to handle desktop videoconferencing.

How they are going to use it: Professors and administrators will use the videoconferencing network to conduct classes, hold meetings, and collaborate on research. For scheduling purposes, class time will have priority, says Susan Bowers, assistant director of video services and support for 4CNet, a network that connects all California State University campuses and the community-college campuses. She is manager of the consortium's videoconference project.

"We typically do around 25 to 30 videoconferences a day" with the existing videoconferencing network, for subjects as varied as teaching equine nutrition and learning animation techniques, Ms. Bowers says. In addition to connecting campuses, the new network will have a bridge to the Internet2 Commons, a shared videoconferencing system, which can be used for national and international videoconferences.

The new statewide videoconferencing network could be operational as early as December, she says. Each campus will provide its own video codecs, hardware units resembling television sets, which handle the exchange of videoconferencing signals among campuses. The price of a codec is about $12,000, down from as much as $40,000 less than 10 years ago, says Ms. Bowers.

Bidders: The consortium has announced its intention to award the videoconferencing contract to Applied Global Technologies Inc., of Rockledge, Fla., one of 12 bidders that submitted proposals. Negotiations are under way, but no contract has been signed. The company has developed videoconferencing-scheduling software for the U.S. Navy's global distance-learning program.

Cost: The value of the contract is unknown. Once awarded, it will be for five years, with an option to extend it for two more years.

What industry analysts say: "A project that ambitious has got to be a multimillion-dollar hardware, software, and services deal," says Robert Mahowald, a research manager for IDC, a technology-research company in Framingham, Mass.

The California videoconferencing network will be based on H.323, an international communications standard. "It's a really flexible standard that allows for video and for data and voice to be transmitted," Mr. Mahowald says. "If you're talking about having desktop uses in the mix, H.323 is really the standard people are using nowadays."

"Five or ten years ago, you had these big ... systems sitting in conference rooms that people had to sort of dust off and get instructions on using," he says. "With the emergence of very-low-cost desktop cameras and technology that better navigates IP networks, people can do this stuff now. It's becoming more of a staple."