Bell delivers a golden games
As the exclusive telecommunications partner to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Bell built the communications network that brought Canada’s Games to the world. Every Olympic image seen on television, every real-time score transmitted and every story read around the world traversed the integrated Vancouver 2010 network designed and delivered by Bell.
These were the most-watched Games of all time according to the International Olympic Committee – we delivered 24,000 broadcasting hours to an estimated 3.5 billion viewers worldwide, a 50% increase over the last Winter Games in Torino in 2006, and 25% more than even the vast 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.
Bell was the first Olympic telecom partner to deliver both wireless and wireline connectivity and had our environmentally sustainable network Games-ready faster than in any other host country before. Bell deployed more than a million metres of cabling connecting 130 Games venues and support sites, including 300 kilometres of new broadband fibre linking Vancouver and Whistler.
The Bell team delivered Canada's Games to the nation and the world while
providing a lasting legacy of enhanced broadband capability.
This was Canadian communications innovation at its best, and provides a legacy of enhanced broadband connectivity for British Columbia.
The volume of communications traffic carried is staggering – more than a trillion packets of data traversed Bell’s Vancouver network during the Games, 90 million minutes of mobile voice traffic, 30 million megabytes of mobile data, 65 million text messages and 750,000 calls from thousands of Bell-provided landline IP phones.
In fact, Bell handled more total phone calls and moved more text messages nationwide than ever before after Bell-sponsored Olympian Sidney Crosby scored in overtime to win hockey gold for Canada.
Bell was also the highest-profile advertiser throughout the Games. We leveraged approximately 50 different television commercials over our more than 2,000 TV spots to bring Bell’s 5 Strategic Imperatives to life, marketing our customer service enhancements, extensive broadband network investments, and leading-edge TV, Internet and wireless products (including the popular Olympic mobile TV service that offered Mobility clients across Canada a unique “virtual frontrow seat” to the Games).
We celebrated our Bell Champion athletes too, part of a Canadian team that won more gold medals than any country in Winter Olympics history. Our athletes program has supported the development of leading Olympians such as Sidney Crosby, Clara Hughes, Ashleigh McIvor, Steve Omischl and Joannie Rochette, all of whom captured the hearts of Canada and the world with exceptionally strong performances, often in the face of real adversity.
The performances of these amazing athletes and their fellow competitors ensured the eyes of the world were on Canada for 17 glorious days in February. The Bell team is proud to have flawlessly delivered our country’s golden Games to them all.
