Bell network delivers golden Games to Canada and the world
Bell's 2010 Winter Games communications network the biggest in Olympic history Highlights Canadian communications innovation to the world Provides a legacy of enhanced broadband connectivity for British Columbia VANCOUVER , March 1 2010 --Bell, a Premier National Partner and the Exclusive TelecommunicationsPartner to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, is proud to havedelivered themost-watched Winter Games in history to Canada andthe world. From February 12 to 28, every image seenon TV, every story read around the world and every real-time score transmitted during the Games traverseda communications solution designed and delivered by Bell.
"The Bell team rose to the extraordinary challenge of connecting the 2010 Winter Games and bringingthese 17 glorious Canadian days to the billions of people watching around the world too," said George Cope, President and CEO of Bell Canada. "The leadership role Bell played in delivering Canada's Games drove communications innovation in this country to new heights. By exceeding the immensely high communications standardsof an Olympic event, we've provided an incredible legacy of increased broadband connectivity forBritish Columbia." As the first telecommunications partner to deliver both wireless and wireline connectivity to anOlympic Games, Bell successfully executed all critical network and communications services at Vancouver 2010, including enhanced high-speed wireless data and fibrebroadband networking, complete broadcast support, extensive Internet portal services and full network security.
The 2010 Winter Games network supported the communications needs of an estimated 250,000 visitors,almost 6,500 athletes and officials, 50,000 staff and volunteers, and more than 10,000 members ofthe Canadian and international media. Bell's Olympic network delivered over 24,000 hours ofbroadcast coverage to more than three and a half billion viewers around the world according to theInternational Olympic Committee - the most in Olympic history, and a 50 per cent increase over the2006 Winter Games in Torino and a 25 per cent increase over the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.
"Bell has been a superb telecommunications partner, formulating a detailed and innovative plan,continually meeting its commitments and successfully helping VANOC deliver the 2010 Winter Games to the world," said John Furlong, Chief Executive Officer of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. "Bell truly lived up to our expectations and to its reputation as Canada's communicationsleader."
Said Justin Webb, Vice President of Olympic Services for Bell: "Not only did Bell have the telecommunications network Games-ready faster than in any host country beforeus, we were the first to build an entire Olympic Games network from scratch using state-of-the-artVoice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) technology, based around a 10 gigabyte backbone and almost 300kilometres of fibre optic cable connecting Vancouver and Whistler and 130 Olympic venues and support sites across the region."
Bell customers also had access to the company's new high-speed HSPA/HSPA+ wireless network, Canada'sfastest and largest network, completed on time for the Games and - for the first time in Olympic history - offering mobile users across Canada a virtual front row seat to the 2010 Winter Games with live mobile Olympic coverage from seven television networks.
Bell network statistics for Vancouver 2010
- 1 trillion packets of data traversed Bell's Vancouver network - 90 million minutes of mobile voice traffic - 30 million megabytes of mobile data - 65 million mobile text messages sent and received - 750,000 calls made from 6,000 landline VOIP phones - 4.9 billion bytes of data delivered to the Internet on behalf of the Games - 1.2 million metres of Cat5 cabling installed to support 31,000 ethernet ports - 300 million people visited vancouver2010.com - representing 1.1 billion page views - An Olympic record-setting 24 billion bps of capacity connected Games broadcasters to the world - 300 billion bps delivered to connect all venues for broadcast to the International Broadcast Centre
About Bell
Bell is Canada's largest communications company, providing consumers and business with solutions toall their communications needs, including Bell Mobility wireless, high-speed Bell Internet, Bell TVdirect to-home satellite television, Bell Home phone local and longdistance, and IP-broadband and information and communications technology (ICT) services. Bell isproud to be a Premier National Partner and the exclusive Telecommunications Partner to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
Bell is wholly owned by BCE Inc. (TSX, NYSE: BCE). For information on Bell's products and services, please visit www.bell.ca. For corporate information on BCE, please visit www.bce.ca.
For further information: Jeff Meerman, Bell Media Relations, (604) 678-7377, jeff.meerman@bell.ca
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