Axell Wireless worked closely with the UK’s mobile operators to deliver seamless mobile phone reception across the entire Olympic Park and associated venues. Ian Brown, CEO of Axell Wireless, remarked that this ambitious project, one of the most demanding of its kind in the world to date, ensured that the huge influx of visitors to the capital caused no disruption to mobile services.
Brown commented: “The successful management of the London 2012 Olympics and the solid performance of the UK mobile networks during the games was a tremendous achievement. Visitors to the Olympics experienced continuous mobile connectivity for the duration of the events. A wireless network of a level of sophistication never seen before was deployed across the Olympic venues, setting the benchmark for future events of this size and importance.”
The UK operators selected Axell Wireless’ equipment and solutions for the task of supporting mobile phone coverage throughout the Olympic and Paralympic games. Faced with the challenge of delivering mobile coverage across the Olympic Park, the operators adopted a Fibre Distributed Antenna System (Fibre DAS) supplied by Axell. The operators installed multiple base stations in a single location – using a configuration known as a “Base Station Hotel” which was directly connected into an Axell Fibre DAS system to propagate cellular coverage throughout the entire park. Axell’s Fibre DAS systems were also deployed across many other Olympic venues throughout the UK and in total over 300 of Axell’s MBF family of optical remotes were deployed, with 46 in the main Olympic Stadium alone. The mobile operator EE led the project to provide coverage around the main 80,000 seat Olympic Stadium. Axell Wireless worked with EE to ensure that the Fibre DAS system was both configured and optimised to support all of the major frequencies used by the UK’s mobile operators.
In addition, Axell Wireless also provided on-site and remote monitoring support during the games. Brown commented: “From our Network Operations Centre, based just outside of London, we rarely got the chance to watch the athletics, as our time was spent watching the performance of the network. Our objective from the outset was to remain unnoticed in the background. We achieved a reliable and consistent level of coverage throughout the duration of the games, and were able to remain fully behind the scenes as we had planned.”
Commenting on the Olympic deployment, Richard Caul, responsible for Network and Service Operations at EE, said: “The London Olympics was an unprecedented event, and warranted an in-building wireless deployment of equal measure. Visitors to the games received a seamless mobile experience, which contributed to the success of the Olympics. The UK mobile operators demonstrated their capability to support one of the most challenging events ever likely to be staged anywhere in the world.”