Brazil 2014 Is The Most Connected World Cup Ever

It seems that just about every major sporting event these days claims to be the “most connected” ever, so it should come as no surprise that the company responsible for building the networks for the ongoing World Cup in Brazil is claiming it is now the most connected in the tournament’s history.

Brazilian telecommunications company Oi is providing connections at all 12 venues across the country as well as the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) in Rio de Janeiro and says members of the media, sponsors, volunteers and FIFA officials have generated 32 terabytes of data in just ten days – a figure which doesn’t include the public Wi-Fi networks that Oi has installed at each stadium.

Mobile World Cup

Oi is confident that this World Cup will surpass the 32 terabytes created by journalists and officials at the Sochi Winter Olympics earlier this year and boasts that Brazil 2014 surpasses the 1.9 terabytes created at the most recent Superbowl.

The event also comfortably beats the 7 terabytes achieved by the FIFA Confederations Cup last year – but this is a much smaller tournament that commands significantly less global interest.

Like other major sporting events, this increase is being attributed to users connecting more devices, such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, to official networks. Oi estimates that 152,000 unique devices have been connected since the World Cup kicked off on 12 June.

Oi monitors activity on its network from its management centre and is connected directly to each venue, the IBC and FIFA’s Network Command Centre in Rio, as well as Oi’s base station in each host city.

Network services

Broadcasters are also benefiting, with services provided to television, radio and press agencies, including ESPN, AFP and Xinhua, while 2G, 3G and 4G services have been improved in key areas of the host cities.

Separately, Oi is providing services for a number of individual teams, with high speed connections being provided for the German, Ghanian and Greek training bases and cellular signals are also being improved through cell-on-wheels (COW) technology at the Algerian and Portuguese camps, which are located in remote areas.

The firm has also installed three new 240Mbps Wi-Fi hotspots at Portugal’s facilities, each capable of handling 2,000 simultaneous connections.

Technology at the World Cup

Technology is now more integral to the World Cup than ever before, with goal line technology making its debut at this year’s tournament, while networks around the world are expected to experience spikes as fans view live streaming services and access social media services.

However a tournament of his popularity is always likely to be targeted by cybercriminals, while Anonymous Brazil has brought down a number of World Cup-related websites and FIFA partners through DDoS attacks.

Excited for the World Cup? Find out with our sporting IT quiz!