Telecommunications operators had the opportunity to tempt users with 3G during the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. Though 3G was not part of the official offering by Grand National Sponsor Cosmote, in accordance with the Olympic Committee rules, advanced networks had been launched prior to the Games by three of the country's major mobile operators.
NTT DoCoMo offered a preview of its own 3G services to at the Olympics. Users could send video back home as if they were making a local call.
Cosmote's 3G network was operational but it officially promoted its I-mode services on GPRS in connection with the Olympics. TIM also announced its 3G network but did not widely advertise. On the other hand, Vodafone introduced a 3G wireless data transfer card for laptop computers and re-launched some of its services as "powered by 3G." Its mobile office and Vodafone Live services were billed as five to six times faster than the 2.5G versions.
Vodafone's technical director, Nikos Mastorakis, reported that its 3G network was "not heavily used," but blames a lack of reasonably priced, user-friendly handsets in volumes. "The networks and the applications are there. Now we must wait for the handsets to be widely available," Mastorakis said.
Dimitris Michaelopoulos is an avid 3G user in Athens. "I was at some Olympic events and got some very special pictures and small videos to send in real-time to my friends in Amsterdam and Rome. I sent them with my voice describing what I saw, and it was incredible," he said.
3G services come in handy for Michaelopoulos, a part-time cab driver and location scout for video productions in Athens. "First I stop the car," he laughs, "then I photograph locations and explain directions how to get there with my voice."
Mobile TV
Even operators outside of Greece were in on the Games. NTT DoCoMo offered a preview of its FOMA services (its own 3G services) to visitors in limited areas of downtown Athens. "I could send video back home as if I were making a local call," said Chiaki Fukui, a volunteer for the Japanese Olympic Committee. "People at home were thrilled to see and hear how things were going here."
Sweden's TeliaSonera pushed 3G services via its Go package. Subscribers could get live feeds from Athens, news updates with pictures and sound via MMS, all on the 3G network. The company's marketing department says specifics are not yet available, but a marked increased in data consumption was obvious. "In the long term, 3G will change the way we watch sports broadcasts, news and entertainment programs," says Johan Röislund, with the Consumer Segment at TeliaSonera Sweden.
Fun to watch
The Swedish technique magazine Ny Teknik tested TeliaSonera's live broadcast services during the Olympics and said it was fun. It thought the resolution was surprisingly good, although some of the sports could be quite hard to watch because of the small screen. Sometimes there was also a delay problem.
Ny Teknik reporter Mats Lewan thought sports such as archery, badminton, sailing, canoe slalom, weightlifting and swimming gave the best viewer experience. Others such as steeple chase and beach volleyball were really hard to watch, while table tennis and boxing, he believed, were more or less impossible to watch. Lewan said it was hard to see a ball or read the result signs, but by listening to the commentator it was possible to follow the game anyway.
