If you’ll be at the Olympics games in Rio this month to live stream, tweet, post, check email, or just check events schedules while mobile, you should have fairly good wireless coverage at official sites. At least, those are the findings of network engineers who have been testing Rio wireless networks in recent months.
International networks consulting and testing company P3 says its device services team has been on the ground in Rio de Janeiro since early this year, testing network coverage in different locations and scenarios. Those hundreds of scenarios included driving, walking and stationary tests of 38 of the world’s most popular smartphones with SIM cards from virtually all of the world’s network operators, at about 37 Olympic venues.
Brazilian mobile carrier Claro and landline service provider Embratel are predicting that Olympic attendees and Rio residents will make 27 million voice calls and send 3 million SMS messages during the Summer Games. Add to that 3G/4G data traffic is forecast to be 50 percent higher than at the 2012 London Games.
Team effort to boost Rio wireless networks coverage
Efforts to bolster Brazil’s 4G LTE network by carriers and local government agencies have been happening ever since Brazil won its bid to host the games. Although operators claim their upgraded networks will perform smoothly, continuous testing of Rio wireless networks coverage areas has been needed to keep pace with development and resulting changes in traffic and people.
“Lab testing is important, but it’s only when we get devices in the field that we can predict the end-to-end, real-life customer experience,” says Ron Housenick, P3’s VP of device services. “For example, if a visitor’s device is not correctly provisioned then calls, messages, apps and data simply won’t work in Rio.”
P3 and other network consultants test not only voice quality, but also the ability to send and receive text, multimedia and email messages, device registration on local networks, and other common connection scenarios on both cellular and Wi-Fi networks. P3 engineers have uncovered a number of issues.
“Some of the devices we tested took as long as 10 minutes to register on the local mobile networks,” Housenick says. Others were not able to send and receive SMS, MMS or voice calls. We also uncovered problems with voicemail applications and interoperability with new technology,” he says.
Global Wireless Solutions (GWS) is another networks testing company that in June also tested cellular voice and data at a range of locations in Rio, including many tourist spots. The results were somewhat disappointing, at least outside of official Olympic venues. GWS testers reported the best Rio wireless networks connectivity to be the Sambadrome (home to the archery competition and marathon) and touristy Copacabana beach.
Reliable Rio Wi-Fi alternative
With 10,500 athletes and millions of fans coming to Rio de Janeiro, you may not want to rely on Rio wireless networks that are free. If you want a more reliable and secure connection, consider a paid hotspot service such as from Linktel and Swedish operator Aptilo. They are jointly offering an encrypted Wi-Fi service for the month of August for only $9.90 for unlimited use. The network has access points at 6,500 locations in Brazil, thanks to four years of development. Locations include 60 malls, 30 airports, 140 restaurants and 180 cafes.
Besides just supplying technology in Rio and elsewhere in Brazil, major tech companies are also sponsoring the games. Cisco is an official Olympics supporter, Microsoft and Symantec are official Olympic suppliers, and European IT services company Atos is a Worldwide Olympic Partner. Network World has more details on how major tech companies have been contributing to the games.
