O2 dropped the ball in Olympic cycle race Twitter fiasco
Twits blamed for network's inadequacies
Ensure Ease of Recovery with Asigra’s Agentless Software
O2's mobile network is to blame after a surge in tweets from spectators' smartphones scuppered the live reporting of an Olympic cycling road race.
Onlookers were told to stop using Twitter on their mobes to allow vital data to reach the organisers. It is understood tiny mobile GPS electronics on athletes' bikes were unable to send their timings due to the saturated data network. Broadcasters were also unable to receive this information, leaving one BBC reporter to use his watch to estimate the timings of a race.
"There was a capacity issue with Box Hill at the weekend," an O2 spokesperson told The Register. "You can imagine that all of the people around that area were frantically using their phones so that was the reason for the oversubscription."
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) was picking up race data from location-reporting transmitters on the bikes. This data was then sent to the Olympic Broadcasting Service (OBS), which handles the on-screen graphics, cameras and other bits and pieces for the telly companies covering the sporting event.
OBS was getting the blame from some quarters for the lack of coverage of the cycling races, which are of particular interest to Brits as it's one of the sports their athletes are more likely to win. But the service said its coverage wasn't nobbled.
"Where we were affected was the lack of data and information coming from LOCOG," the OBS told The Register, adding that it was getting its stats from LOCOG through a cable, not over the air. The OBS spokesperson said that in its pre-Olympics testing, it had also experienced interference on Box Hill, despite promises from Ofcom that the frequencies it needed would be cleared.
LOCOG would only say that there was a "telecoms issue".
O2 said that it monitors its network 24 hours a day. "If we see congestion, we do everything we can to minimise it by making adjustments to our network," the spokesperson said.
The Twitterati was less than impressed at getting the blame for the network issues. One tweeted: "Sending timing data over cell network - what could go wrong?" ®
COMMENTS
Unfair criticism
Hey stop having a go at poor old O2, it's not like they had 7 year's notice to prepare for this event.
Sure, at box hill
but what about everywhere else? that was only the circuit element. The timing was rubbish all over.
Not Their Fault
Criticising the Olympic race organisers for their data cockup isn't fair. They asked OFCOM 8 years ago for licensing permits on a different band, but OFCOM hadn't managed to a decision. :P
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Top 10 SIEM implementer’s checklist
Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
