Number Of Long Distance Cell Phone Calls Soar During 2004 Summer Olympics Games

Athletes and visitors in Athens for the Olympics appeared to be out to set a record for number of cell phone calls. Aligent, a California-based company, estimates that an additional five million people made cellular phone calls outside their home area during the games.

Large events like the Olympics tend to bring out the cell phone user in nearly everyone. Athletes make calls back to friends at home. Groups of tourists use cells to call others and stay in touch between scattered sports venues. Journalist relay on a cell phone call to report on the games.

Greece spent a lot of time and money preparing to handle the volume of cells expected during the Olympics. The number of cell phone towers in Athens tripled in the months before the games. The state-owned phone company spent $372 million to improve Greece's telecommunications infrastructure and make sure it was ready to handle hundreds of thousands of cell phones calls a day.

No major problems in making calls were reported during the games. One phone vendor was telling cell phone users to wait five minutes and try again if they had difficulty making a call. Aligent did report that British visitors to Athens were having trouble using cells to access the Internet. The problem appeared to a configuration glitch rather than a network overloaded by cell phone call traffic.

During the 2000 Summer Olympics in Australia, an additional 100,000 calls each day went through Telstra, Australia’s principal telecommunications provider.

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Wendy Whittaker is a successful author and regular contributor to http://www.1st-in-cell-phones.com. A cellular phone industry resource featuring articles, comparisons and reviews of cellular phone and service plans.

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Number Of Long Distance Cell Phone Calls Soar During 2004 Summer Olympics Games