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Wireless in Atlanta
Olympics provide testbed for new communication networks
July 31, 1996
Web posted at: 6:30 p.m. EDTFrom Correspondent Ann Kellan
ATLANTA (CNN) -- Wireless communication is making history at the Centennial Olympic Games. Never have so many cell phones, pagers, and two-way radios been used in one place at one time.
Millions of dollars have been spent to make way for millions of calls -- and Saturday's bombing in Centennial Olympic Park put the wireless networks to an even greater test.
In the 24 hours surrounding the blast, BellSouth reported, 1.5 million calls were made over its cellular network, a 14 percent increase from the day before.
Motorola recorded 1,000,700 minutes of two-way radio transmissions -- normally 20 days worth of air time -- in 24 hours.
But even without the bombing, officials had prepared for record-breaking use during the Olympics. BellSouth's Jeff Battcher predicted that the two-and-a-half week period of the Games would see more cellular use than ever before.
But opinions on how well Atlanta is handling all that extra airtime depends on who gets the question. Some report trouble making connections, while others say the reception is just fine.
BellSouth and AirTouch, in charge of Atlanta's cellular phone networks, say more than 98 percent of cellular calls are getting through. Millions of dollars have been spent to handle the extra demand.
The switching equipment is located at cell sites. Twenty-one cells on wheels, nicknamed COWs, roam Atlanta during the Games to follow the crowds. Some permanent cell sites have been disguised as trees, others hidden in church steeples.
Refrigerator-sized cells are buried at airports, at subway stations and the stadiums. And for the first time, BellSouth is introducing a digital cellular network. Digital phone systems can handle three to six times more calls that conventional analog systems.
Motorola spent millions to add more relay and trunking stations to handle more than 12,000 two-way radios in use.
BellSouth will turn off its digital system after the Olympics until 1997, even though the system promises a cleaner signal and less chance for eavesdropping and cloning.
But it's a complicated process, and it will take years for digital to take over the airwaves in the United States.
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- Governors push to put PCs in every classroom - March 27, 1996
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