BuddeBlog

As we get closer to the magic Olympic Games, more and more details about the event are becoming available. .In Sydney, the main Olympics venues are spread over an area stretching from the city centre to Penrith Lakes, approximately 40 kilometres west of the city. Interstate venues are in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra and Melbourne.

The Paralympic Games follow from the Olympic Games, from 18 to 29 October 2000, with 10,000 athletes contesting 18 sports at 5 venues. All Paralympic venues are in Sydney area.

Key statistics

· 15 September to 1 October 2000

· 19 days of competition

· 10,200 athletes

· 5,100 team officials

· 15,000 media team representatives

· 28 sports will be contested

· 19 venues fifteen in the Sydney area and 4 interstate

· 5.5 million tickets

· 7 million spectators

· 4 billion TV audience

According to its Olympic Unit manager John Hunter, Telstra’s role at the Games is to produce a uniform network around all the sites. The main delivery network is video for broadcasters and audio and data for radio and the press.

However security, police, ambulance and official and volunteer services will all need communications, and with all these units and the various cooperating bodies, Telstra will be in the middle of a very complex organisation.

Although Telstra provides the communications network services, terminals such as telephones, modems, mobile handsets and so forth are being supplied by other companies and some of these suppliers are yet to come on board.

The network (apart from Homebush Bay) is not separate, but part of the main Sydney network and integrated with the National network. Telstra is building enough capacity in Sydney, particularly around Homebush, Darling Harbour and other main sites to cater for the traffic peaks we can expect in the Games period.

The worst time for traffic density is expected to be the two or three days before the Games begin. Also, as the media arrive and make test calls etc. at the International Broadcasting Centre (IBC) and the MPC (Main Press Centre) high rates are expected.

Number of Telstra services

Video links to IBC – 280

Cable TV channels – 60

Audio – 3,200

Data (2 Mb/S) – 250

Telephony – 25,000

Mobile-cellular – 15,000

Mobile-trunk – 12,000

International video – 120

International audio – 450

International data – 34Mb/s

There will be no PABXs at Homebush Bay but the Centrex technology will be used, together with a cableless type technology and optical fibre cable links with venues. This will avoid a tremendous amount of cabling, which would then become redundant after the 19 days of the Games.

An IBC will be established with 280 video links. That is ten times more than Telstra would be supplying throughout Australia at any one time. This is only half those used at Atlanta, but the difference is due to our much smaller population.

There will be 120 international video links leaving Australia, mainly on submarine cable with satellite backup. However there will be many more pictures feeding countries with many different languages.

Locally, plain old telephone services may reach 30,000 and Telstra is allowing for 1500 cellular phones excluding those brought in by spectators. Some of these will be working under roaming agreements from abroad.

Spectators’ mobile phones are expected to approach 300,000 in number. This density will be a problem, especially if a large proportion want to use their cell phones at the same time. To cater for this, many antennae are being installed some under seats in stadia and some under ground. Cell radii will be about 30 metres to improve chances of successful operation.

Russian regional telecommunications operator Kubanelektrosvyaz is one of the top three Russian telephone operators. Last year it installed 4,000 new lines. In 1998, the company is looking to expand by 40,000 numbers. Gorbachev said that currently there were 400,000 people on the waiting list for telephone installation.

For more information: http://www.interfax-news.com

Moscow City Telephone Network, or MGTS is currently one of the ten biggest city telephone networks in the world, with more than 4 million subscribers, 500 exchanges, 530 ATX and substations, 80,000 kilometers of cable and more than 30,000 pay-phones. Moscow has the highest telephone density in Russia, with 98 telephones per 100 households, or 48 telephones per 100 residents.

MGTS has charter capital of 1,915,901 rubles. The biggest shareholders are the Moscow Committee for Science and Technology with a stake of 50%, or 60% of voting shares, and national telecoms holding Svyazinvest with 23.3%, or 28% of voting shares. Foreign shareholders own about 15% of the company.

For more information: http://www.interfax-news.com

Vimpelcom operates its Moscow D-AMPS and GSM-1800 network under the brand name Bee Line. The company had more than 123,000 subscribers as of April 1, 1998.

For more information: http://www.interfax-news.com

Russia’s Regiontrunk has begun commercial operation of a trunk communications network using equipment manufactured by Uniden America Corp., Regiontrunk marketing director Vladimir Shibanov told Interfax.

The first four base stations in Moscow will provide reliable wireless and cellular telephone communications throughout the city and the surrounding vicinity up to 30 kilometers beyond the city beltway. The system provides wireless communications in the 800 megahertz range using the ESAS protocol for up to 2,500 subscribers. The system cost a total of about $1.5 million.

Shibanov said four more base stations are planned in Moscow and the surrounding area, which will boost the number of subscribers the system can handle to 5,000.

The trunk system will provide wireless communications services including automatic roaming and re-routing of incoming calls, digital paging, voice mail, and conference calling.

Shibanov said the company expected to sell the service to passenger and freight transportation services, retail and wholesale trading companies, construction firms, security services, and expeditor services.

Moscow is not the first city in Russia to acquire a trunk communications network. In June 1997 the Volgograd region began operating two ESAS base stations, which now serve 200 clients. This year, Bryansk, Smolensk, and Rostov region will also acquire the networks. Each of the projects will cost no less than $500,000, Shibanov said.

Regiontrunk is licensed to provide trunk communications services in the 800 MHz range in 11 Russian regions. In the next two years, the company and its partners plan to complete a trunk communications network spanning 128 cities throughout the country, which will be able to offer roaming services to subscribers. The company’s partners have already installed ESAS networks in Novosibirsk and on Sakhalin.

For more information: http://www.interfax-news.com