In its role as Official Network Infrastructure Partner Nortel will provide BT with the equipment needed to provide Wide Area Networks (WAN), wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), call centre and fixed telephony infrastructure.
According to the company, London 2012’s communication systems will support over 205 international sporting organisations, 20,000 worldwide media, nine million spectators, and over four billion television viewers of the London Olympic Games. The Games will be the equivalent of hosting 26 Athletics World Championships simultaneously.
Jayne Rees, Nortel Leader London 2012, told CBR that one of the most challenging aspects of the deal will be the huge demand placed on the network infrastructure. There will be a mass migration of people and data throughout the games – people will be uploading and downloading things such as photos, so there will be a lot of pressure on the system. The capacity of the network will be equivalent to 50,000 DVDs being downloaded per second, throughout the entire during of the Games, she said.
Nortel will join adidas, BP, British Airways, BT, EDF Energy, and Lloyds TSB as a Tier One partner of the Games. The company will also get exclusive marketing rights and usage rights to the London 2012 brand within its sector.
The deal will also see Nortel become one of the Games’ sustainability partners, alongside BT, EDF Energy and BP, aiming to reduce the carbon footprint associated with hosting the games, before, during and after the event.
The company is also a Tier Three partner of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and will be supplying network security within the Olympic Stadium at the 2008 Games in Beijing.
Sebastian Coe, Chair of London 2012, said: As we head to Beijing, I’m thrilled to have another world class partner on board. Nortel will be a great partner, and, as well as bringing ‘best in class’ products to the table, will be supporting our sustainability commitments and our education programme too. We are counting on Nortel with their Olympic Games experience and breadth of expertise for mission-critical projects to ensure successful delivery of our Games requirements. Commercially, we are in great shape, with four years to go we are in the unprecedented position of having raised over half of our domestic sponsorship targets already.
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