For a couple of weeks in 2012, the eyes of the world are going to be on London. Billions of people will watch the Olympic Games and hundreds of thousands of competitors and visitors will descend on the capital to see the world’s greatest sporting event. And, of course, they are likely to want to share their experiences, pictures and videos with loved ones.
Problem: London’s mobile phone network might creak under the pressure.
Boris claims he’s been worried about this for a couple of years. He said: “We are doing a huge amount of work to ensure there is enough coverage. But we have got to be realistic, in the men’s 100m final people want to download huge quantities of data which will put a massive strain on the networks. We are looking to install enough masts and have enough physical infrastructure and coverage for the huge demands, I am confident we will crack it.”
As well as people not being able to share video footage of men’s weightlifting from their iPad (probably just as well) mobile phone blackouts could, according to the Telegraph, cause operational problems. This is because ‘transport operators, Olympic Games volunteers and staff and security officers will use smart phones to communicate to then relay important security and travel updates to the public.’
And, Transport for London is also about to roll out a text message travel update scheme. Apparently, it will simply say “your bus will arrive before this text message does.”