This service was mentioned above but we will try to provide a bit more information here. The EPC Global Network is being administered by the EAN.UCC with Verisign in charge of the hosting of the Object Name Servers(ONS). The network has been set up to provide a means of creating a data store and location service for Electronic Product Codes(EPC) data that can be accessed by anyone with an internet connection and the proper authorisation.

Our Public Service described above is a small and limited implementation of the EPC Global service and will work well on its own within a trading group where some of the members do not use the system directly. Nodes that obtain fragments that have not been entered into the system will post the information when it is received by them, thus filling in the gaps. The data that was gathered by non users is stored in our repository and an indicator is set on the transaction as a whole to say that information is available on the network.This data can be left on the network or retrieved and added to the local datastore.

The EPC Global Network on the other hand is a well structured repository of EPC related data and services which provide many tools for the discovery of information relating to individual items, transactions and locations. There is even a module you can use to connect with the EPC Global Track and Trace service being provided by Verisign.

The network will ultimately be used as the primary repository for EPC data by most major retailers and manufacturers. The use of this service will therefore allow the data which you provide to be available to supermarkets or even end consumers.It will also allow you to access the data on the network from others using EPC Global and integrate that data with your own. We use the same message formats and codes to make this as easy as possible

The use of this service makes it possible for small to medium sized organisations (SME) to access and use the EPC Global network with no additional resource and a fraction of the costs associated with individual participation. If your end consumer requires a full history and you agree they can access the information and process it just as they process their own EPC Global hosted data.

The Tutorial Section of the Project Overview has some examples of how this may be of benefit in your particular situation.