Mobile Networks in London Overrun by Tweets

LONDON, United Kingdom – Spectators to to the 2012 Olympics were asked to avoid tweeting and other use of mobile networks, as it was affecting coverage and measurement of the games.

It was expected that the Summer Olympics in London would be a challenge for the mobile networks of the city, but the latest events proved that the problem may have an even bigger impact as the overwork of the networks with SMS, tweets and other social networking communications caused the GPS data from the Saturday’s men’s cycling road race to be inaccessible and not to be possible to determine how far the leaders were ahead of the chasing pack, because the data could not get through from the GPS satellite navigation systems travelling with the cyclists.

As a result, on the following day sports fans were advised to restrain themselves from unnecessary social messaging when attending the Olympics. The official mobile operator of the games, BT, along with Vodafone and O2, have extended their coverage significantly for the games, but according to an IOC spokesman, it appeared that the problem lay with oversubscription on one particular network, and talks had taken place in an attempt to share more of the data. There is no confirmation on which network had the problem.