Olympics Winners Include Networking, Telecom Firms

Besides athletes from countries large and small, networking and telecom firms also are bringing home gold and silver from the Summer Olympics now underway in Athens. While attendance at the events in Greece is down, there has been no dip in the need for the networking services needed to run the games and deliver results to officials and audiences worldwide.

Here is a rundown of some of the firms enjoying winnings from Olympic-related business:

Isilon Systems: Isilon is providing Sports Illustrated magazine with Isilon's clustered storage system as the repository for about one-half million digital photographs that SI expects to generate during the Olympic games. This is the first Olympics at which 100 percent of SI's photography will be digital and that all photography content will be processed digitally during the magazine and the SI web site production process.

IBM/E Team: IBM's Greek unit and crisis management software firm E Team, Los Angeles, have collaborated to provide core capabilities for a computer-based incident response and crisis management system at the Athens games.

AT&T: AT&T's network is the backbone of Olympic broadcasts back to the U.S. The carrier is using six network paths -- three satellite-based and three terrestrial"to ensure the widest and most reliable coverage. As an official Olympic sponsor, AT&T is providing athletes on U.S. teams with a range of services, including long distance, Web hosting, wireless voice and data services, PrePaid Calls long distance calls and video conferencing.Infonet Services Corp./Boingo Wireless: Infonet's MobileXpress Wi-Fi service includes locations in Greece in support of customer requirements during the games. Along with Earthlink, Fiberlink and Telecom Italia, Infonet also is one of the carriers for Santa Monica, Calif.-based Boingo Wireless's roaming system that connects 12 Wi-Fi locations in Greece. Boingo has locations at the Macedonia International Airport, Athens International Airport and hotels and conference centers in Greece.

IlLoop Mobile: ILLoop Mobile is delivering text messaging results from the games to subscribers in the United States. Cell phone customers using AT&T Wireless, Cingular T Mobile and Verizon can subscribe to the service. They are charged $.30 for each message received.

Intelsat: The satellite services firm is providing transport services for various broadcast and news organizations covering the Olympics. These customers are using a combination of satellite, teleport and terrestrial services packaged by Intelsat.

ZTE: China-based ZTE Corp. is executing a contract from the Greek Telecommunications Organisation to deploy an ADSL network that is delivering broadband Internet services during the Olympics. The network is available at many Olympic facilities, including the main venue, international broadcasting center and press village.

Tyco Telecommunications: Japan Telecom has contracted with Tyco for access to international circuits on Tyco's Global Network to support HDTV broadcasts from the Olympic games. Tyco is providing multiple STM-16 circuits (2.488 Gbps) to connect Japan Telecom's distribution facility in Tokyo with Points of Presence (PoPs) in New York, London, Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.0