By Simon Quicke
30 July 2008
In a sign that backs up other anecdotal channel expectations that it will be networking players that get a slice of the Olympic action, Nortel has become an infrastructure at the 2012 London games.
The appointment as a partner has been made just a fortnight before the games kick off in a smog covered Beijing.
Mike Zafirovski, President and CEO of Nortel, said that it would be playing an important role in what was increasingly becoming a global multimedia event.
“The network infrastructure is fundamental to the Games and critical to the delivery of its communications services,” he said.
Nortel will be responsible for providing BT with the equipment to enable secure and robust Wide Area Networks, wireless Local Area Networks, call centre and fixed telephony infrastructure which LOCOG requires to stage the Games.
BT recently unveiled a £1.5bn investment to roll out fibre-based, super-fast broadband to over 10 million homes by 2012.
Chief Executive Ian Livingstone said BT would be working extensively with the government and Ofcom to decide where and when to focus the deployment, and promised that it would not just be focused on urban areas – although predictably ‘new build’ sites such as the Thames Gateway and 2012 Olympic Village will be among the first beneficiaries.
