And of course there is an app that locates free wifi. I love technology!
http://www.wififreespot.com/europe.html
http://www.wififreespot.com/europe.html
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And of course there is an app that locates free wifi. I love technology!
http://www.wififreespot.com/europe.html
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By Lilly Vitorovich and Carolyn Henson, Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday 10 July 2012 .
http://www.totaltele.com/view.aspx?ID=474863&G=1&C=4&Page=0 When Jamaica's Usain Bolt smashed the 100-meter world record at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 smartphones were just appearing. Four years on, and the challenge of delivering the communications for the London 2012 Olympic Games has reached whole new levels of complexity. The use of smartphones and tablet computer has exploded, audiences are bigger and more media savvy, and with everything in real time, each glitch has an impact. "Nowadays people want to share their experience with the people who can't be there. Suddenly everyone in the stadium is kind of a journalist," said Howard Dickel, director of U.K. telecommunications operator BT Group PLC's London 2012 delivery program in an exclusive interview. BT is shouldering sole responsibility for the London Olympics data network. It means that along with providing speeds and feeds for a high-density WiFi voice and data network coordinated over 94 locations, it must manage the myriad applications running over that network, tying together videos streams from thousands of cameras, the commentary from broadcasters as well as data from official photographs, sports reports, phone calls, emails, text and tweets. The network capacity at the London Games will be seven times the capacity at Beijing carrying 60 Gigabits of information per second at peak times. It will be the first Olympic Games with WiFi for the public. The experience for spectators at the the London Olympics will be radically different from Beijing, Mr Dickel said. "For the first time the public will be able to view the events but also replay and send photos and video to friends and family," he said. BT is one of around 40 official sponsors and suppliers to the games which will kick off on July 27. It declines to reveal how much it has paid in sponsorship, but Roel Louwhoff, chief executive of BT Operate, the unit that manages BT's voice, data and television networks said it is already seeing returns as a result of the heightened profile in the forms of contracts with large customers. "Yes it is costing us money but in the end we want to get a return over a period of time, which is bigger than the input. "We expects to break even over two years after the end of the Olympics," said Mr Louwhoff. The preparations have taken four years. BT engineers observed behind the scenes at Beijing and spent three months in Vancouver over the run up and roll out of the Winter Olympics there. As well as providing the world's largest high-density WiFi network for spectators, the company must work seamlessly with the other technology providers such as French technology company Atos SA and Swiss watchmaker Omega which will provide the timing and scoring systems, and Visa Inc. which will provide payment services at retail outlets. Alongside the technological demands, the company soon discovered a parallel logistics challenge. "It is a huge logistics project, a bit like a military campaign," said Mr Dickel."It's things like: do you have all your spare parts and tools in the right place? Can you get the 850 engineers home late at night? Where are you going to house them during the Games? How are you going to feed them?" The logistics alone has taken three years to sort out, Mr Dickel said. Waste has been another thorny issue. With sustainability a key element of London's Olympic promise, BT must retain all the packaging from each piece of equipment its uses at the games. These will be stored off site and then every product will be matched with its original packaging afterwards. For security reasons everything is duplicated, right from the fibers under the ground upwards. The robustness of the network and systems in place have been tested through nearly 800 different emergency scenarios. "BT is clearly very focussed on the benefits of their involvement, but it's not a job for the faint-hearted," said Scott Morrison, enterprise communications analyst at technology research firm Gartner. "Communications are absolutely fundamental to the Games. There are risks of reputational damage if they don't get it right, great advertising if they can pull it off," he said. The company says it will be monitoring Twitter feeds and social network sites for a heads up on any faults or complaints. "People are more likely to vent their frustration on line in the first instance than to tell us," said Mr. Dickel. |