Sports Technology & Communications News from Around the World

An estimated 230,000 people entered Leeds to watch the Grand Depart of the Tour de France.  In order to guarantee high speed internet for the crowds of people coming to watch the event, the Leeds Council selected Virgin Media Business. Siklu’s (News - Alert) tiny Gigabit 60GHz radio was chosen by Virgin Media Business as a backup to make sure everyone receives internet connection. 

Virgin Media Business had to lengthen the Wi-Fi coverage and make other preparations to get ready for the large amount of people.  It took them months to arrange the perfect set up to get Internet everywhere. 

After many trials, Virgin Media (News - Alert) Business developed a plan that included Siklu’s EtherHaul-600T.  Since not all hotspots connected to the fiber backhaul, they needed Siklu’s EtherHaul-600T as a wireless backhaul.  These were positioned carefully among many lighting poles around Leeds in efforts to extend the Internet connection, while remaining unnoticed. 

As a result of the growing need to share everything on social media, it was crucial to set up the Wi-Fi connection around the city.  The Tour de France is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that people want to post all over the Internet.  Virgin Media Business prepared for the massive crowds that showed up for the sporting event. 

The Leeds City Council and these two companies combined to ensure a Wi-Fi connection for the world’s third largest sporting event.  Their many months of planning allowed people to share their experience over free high speed internet.