"This should increase, or at least maintain, network performance for our users," he wrote. "Note, however, that we can only control the performance of our local network."

"We have increased the bandwidth to the Internet," he added. "However, the Internet itself is large and complex, and individual websites may be fast or slow depending on the network conditions between Harvard and them."

The bandwidth expansion will affect the entire Harvard network, including the College, business and medical schools and all Harvard-affiliated hospitals, Moriarty said.

Applications like Napster impede efficient network operation, and some colleges and universities have been forced to ban the popular music-swapping website to prevent prematurely exceeding bandwidth limitations for their networks.

Steen said the expansion of bandwidth is unrelated to Harvard's recent decision not to ban Napster from its network.

"We had originally said that Napster was not affecting our bandwidth," he said. "The whole discussion for Harvard dealt mostly with the illegality of Napster."

And even if Harvard had banned Napster, the upgrade would still have been needed.

"Our network bandwidth needs have been increasing regardless of Napster use, so that we would need this upgrade even if there was no Napster usage," Osterberg wrote.