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London 2012 Olympics: tech of the world's biggest games

London will host the 2012 Olympics this summer from the 27th of July to August 12th. A lot of preparation and technology goes into prepping for the worldwide gaming event, and we'll gather all the news we can find about it right here.

  • Aaron Souppouris

    Jul 27, 2012

    Aaron Souppouris

    Airbnb is cashing in on the Olympics, and why that's a good thing

    london olympics_1020
    london olympics_1020

    Airbnb, an online service that facilitates the short-term rental of rooms, houses, apartments, and more, has revealed a huge uptake in London bookings in the lead up to this month's Summer Olympics. The company told Bloomberg that it expected a three-fold increase in its London business this summer, with pricing averaging out at 25 percent higher than normal.

    London is preparing itself for a huge influx of visitors as the games begin, and the vast majority of hotels and hostels are booked, leaving a handful of rooms that are either very expensive or poorly located. Some hotels have been full for the Olympic fortnight since last summer. Airbnb users have added over 6,000 London properties to the site this year (a large portion of which are due to the company purchasing British site CrashPadder) and has 4,500 London bookings covering the next three weeks.

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  • Aaron Souppouris

    Jul 25, 2012

    Aaron Souppouris

    Olympic venues clamp down on threat posed by Wi-Fi hotspots, oversized hats

    prohibited items olympics
    prohibited items olympics

    To say that LOCOG, the London Olympics organizing committee, has seen its share of negative press would be an understatement. It's been flagged for draconian rules on social networking, mixing up the Czech and Croatian national anthems on iTunes, and refusing to allow fries to be sold without a minimum quota of fish. In a document titled 'Prohibited items' the committee lays out what you can and can't take with you to the games. As well as expected bans on firearms, knives, narcotics and spray paints, LOCOG is prohibiting visitors to carry more than 100ml of liquid, tripods, hard-sided bags (such as briefcases), oversized hats, and, curiously, Wi-Fi hotspots.

    LOGOG's guidance specifies that "personal/private wireless access points and 3G hubs" will not be permitted inside Olympic venues. It will, however, allow "smart devices such as Android phones, iPhones, and tablets," but only if you promise not to use them as wireless hotspots. While LOCOG hasn't explained its reasoning behind any of the decisions, GigaOm speculates that it may have something to do with Olympic sponsor BT's position as "official communications services partner." BT has 1,500 paid hotspots at Olympic sites, with prices starting from £5.99 ($9.28) for 90 minutes use, and the committee may be protecting its sponsor's interests with the ban.

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  • Sam Byford

    Jul 23, 2012

    Sam Byford

    Twitter to be 'official narrator' for London Olympics under NBC deal, says WSJ

    london olympics_1020
    london olympics_1020

    Twitter and NBC are set to team up to provide an official hub page for the London Olympics, with the microblogging service serving as an "official narrator" of the Games. The Wall Street Journal reports that tweets from athletes, fans, and TV personalities will be curated and hosted online on a page that NBC will heavily promote throughout its broadcasts. Neither party is paying for the privilege, but Twitter reportedly sees it as a golden opportunity to expand its audience beyond the current 140 million monthly users, with vice president of media Chloe Sladden calling it "a way for new users to sample Twitter." NBC, meanwhile, has already made social media a big part of its Olympics coverage by previously announcing tie-ins with Facebook, as well as live streaming apps for iOS and Android.

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  • Andrew Webster

    Jul 12, 2012

    Andrew Webster

    NBC launches Olympics mobile apps, includes live-streaming with one-time authentication

    london olympics_1020
    london olympics_1020

    NBC announced that mobile was going to be a part of its London Olympics coverage back in May, and today the network has released a pair of apps for iPhone, iPad, and "select" Android devices. The "Live Extra" app will let you live stream the full 3,500 hours of Olympic content from your mobile device, as well as watch replays — though you'll need to be a subscriber to a cable or satellite package that includes both CNBC and MSNBC. Adobe, who worked with NBC to build the apps, says that you'll only need to go through the sign-in process once to prove you're a subscriber, without the need for re-authentication.

    Adobe's Ashley Still told GigaOM that each device will also get a one-time use pass that provides an hour's worth of viewing time without the need to sign in at all. Aside from the live streaming app, there's also a companion NBC Olympics app, which provides news, statistics, schedules, and other supplementary content. And, unsurprisingly given NBC's focus social media for the games, it will also let you share content across Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. You can grab both apps now from NBC's Olympics site.

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  • Dante D'Orazio

    Jul 12, 2012

    Dante D'Orazio

    NBC embraces Facebook for Olympics coverage both online and on-air

    london olympics_1020
    london olympics_1020

    The once-every-two-year nature of the Olympic games means that it offers a convenient way of observing the changes in mainstream technology, and for this year's games social media is playing a bigger part than ever before. NBC is teaming up with Facebook for the event with changes to the NBC Olympics page and website. The Facebook page is being transformed into the primary hub for up-to-date news, and, of course, there will be interactive features like polls and trivia questions. What's more interesting happens off of NBC Olympics' Facebook page: the main site at nbcolympics.com has been updated with a social sharing option that uses Facebook Open Graph to automatically share what stories and videos you view. Additionally, the partnership introduces Facebook Talk Meter, which monitors and surfaces the content that's most actively being discussed on the social network. It'll all wrap up with on-air Facebook integration during the games, something you'll be able to experience over the internet thanks to NBC's decision to stream all content online.

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  • Chris Welch

    Jul 5, 2012

    Chris Welch

    Oscar Pistorius to make history as first amputee athlete to compete in track and field at Olympics

    Oscar Pistorius
    Oscar Pistorius

    Oscar Pistorius is set to become the first Paralympian to compete in track and field at the Olympics after South African sports officials relaxed their strict qualification rules and named him in both the individual 400 metres and 4x400 relay. The 25-year-old double-amputee — who races competitively through the use of Ossur prosthetic carbon fiber blades — will now get the chance to realize a lifelong dream: he'll be taking part in both the Olympic Games and Paralympics in the same year. His odds of making the trek to London were cast in doubt during a race last week after he failed to obtain a qualifying time by just 0.22 seconds. Yet in a last-minute turnaround, South Africa's Olympic committee added Pistorius as the final member of the country's track and field team.

    "Since he's going to be there (in London), our decision is he can run both," committee chief Tubby Reddy said of the accomplished Paraplympic champion. "There's no reason why he can't. Our decision is he can." Though he didn't get into the specifics of why Pistorius is being allowed to participate despite not meeting the traditional guidelines, committee President Gideon Sam seems utterly confident in the move. "As I have said many times before, we are not taking passengers to London," he said, emphasizing that Pistorius was chosen strictly for his athletic prowess — independent of any disability.

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  • Thomas Ricker

    Jun 25, 2012

    Thomas Ricker

    First ever 'dead heat' photo-finish at US Olympic trials

    dead heat
    dead heat

    US sprinters Allyson Felix and Jeneba Tarmoh both crossed the finish line in exactly 11.068 seconds on Sunday to tie for third place in the final of the women's 100 meter Olympics qualifier. The "dead heat" finish was captured by a single camera shooting 3,000 frames per second located on the inside of the track — a second outside camera that's traditionally used for photo-finish images was obscured from determining third place due to the athletes' arms (the torso position determines the winner).

    The dead-heat finish is a first for US Olympic track and field leaving the coveted third Olympic team spot in doubt as both the USA Track & Field and the United States Olympic Committee scrambled to announce new dead heat procedures on Sunday night. In short, if neither athlete declines her position on the Olympic team then a tie-breaker will be determined by a coin toss or run-off.

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  • Aaron Souppouris

    Jun 15, 2012

    Aaron Souppouris

    BBC Sport launches new mobile site with video streaming over 3G

    The BBC has relaunched its Sport site for mobile devices with a new design that offers easy access to video content over 3G and Wi-Fi. The site will not only include clips of past events, but also, like its desktop brother, use HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) to stream live events to your smartphone or tablet. HLS is supported by recent versions of both Android and iOS, but unfortunately Windows Phone doesn't yet support the standard.

    While British smartphone users were already able to stream BBC channels and programming through the iPlayer service, the BBC Sport site will serve as a portal for additional live events that aren't being broadcast on terrestrial televsion. The new design is live now with coverage of the Euro 2012 soccer tournament. Have a look for yourself, or wait till this summer, when the portal will broadcast up to 24 Olympic live video streams simultaneously.

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  • Laura June

    Jun 7, 2012

    Laura June

    Getty to photograph London Summer Olympics in 3D, 360 degrees, and to use robotic cameras

    london olympics_1020
    london olympics_1020

    Getty, the official photo agency for the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games, has announced that it plans to make use of some non-traditional methods when it shoots the athletic goings-ons this summer. The photographers covering the events will be shot in 3D, and some of them will be shot in a 360 degree format. Some of the events, Getty has said, will be shot entirely using robotic cameras. Getty has previously used its new 360 degree photography format last year at the wedding of royals Prince William and Kate Middleton.

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  • Aaron Souppouris

    Jun 7, 2012

    Aaron Souppouris

    London Tube Wi-Fi network now live at King's Cross St. Pancras and Warren Street

    london olympics_1020
    london olympics_1020

    It's been a long time coming, but London's free Tube Wi-Fi network has finally gone live today in two stations, with four more to follow by the end of this week. Travellers at King's Cross St. Pancras and Warren Street will now be able to browse the web from the stations' platforms. To access the service, Transport for London (TfL) says you simply need to connect to the network and register your email address.

    The two launch stations will be joined tomorrow by Oxford Circus and Green Park, with Victoria and Euston set to go live on Saturday. These stations are all on the Victoria line, which has apparently been picked to launch the network. TfL plans to install wireless networks at 80 Tube stations by the end of July, expanding to 120 by the year's end. The free Wi-Fi is provided by Virgin Media and is being launched in preparation for the 2012 Summer Olympics, which kick off on July 27th.

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  • Nathan Ingraham

    Jun 6, 2012

    Nathan Ingraham

    London Olympics to be streamed to 64 countries in Asia and Africa via YouTube

    london olympics_1020
    london olympics_1020

    Online streaming coverage of this year's Olympics in London is set to be a major part of the event''s coverage — NBC alone is planning to broadcast some 3,500 hours of content over YouTube, and the BBC is also planning to continually broadcast coverage over 24 different channels. Now, the International Olympic Committee has announced plans to 2,200 hours of the Olympics on YouTube, focused on providing free coverage to 64 countries in Asia and Africa. The IOC is focused on providing coverage to countries where digital broadcasting rights have yet to be sold. Overall, the feed will consist of 10 live channels from 9am till 11pm (London time) plus a 24-hour broadcast of the Olympic news channel. It's starting to feel like no matter what part of the world your'e in, the Olympics will be viewable online.

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  • Nathan Ingraham

    Jun 1, 2012

    Nathan Ingraham

    Visa exclusivity agreement forces the closure of 27 ATMs at the London Olympics

    VISA
    VISA

    If you're heading to the London Olympics this summer, you might want to make sure you have cash ahead of time — thanks to Visa's exclusive sponsor status, 27 ATMs at the nine various Olympics venues around London will be shut down. In their place will be eight Visa ATMs that won't work with Mastercard or other card providers. Of course, almost 97 percent of debit cards in use in the UK are Visa cards, but the reduction in available machines is an inconvenience no matter how you slice it. That's without mentioning the many foreign tourists who might not be as Visa-heavy as the UK populace. At least the machines won't charge a fee to users, like many of the machines being replaced. London's Payment Council (in charge of UK payment services) didn't offer much in the way of support for consumers, saying that "it really is a matter for Locog [the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games]. It's up to them what they do with regard to sponsors." The major reduction of available ATMs means even Visa customers won't be too happy when trying to get their money at the Olympics.

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  • Thomas Ricker

    Jun 1, 2012

    Thomas Ricker

    First 80 Wi-Fi Tube stations named in London

    Westminster Underground_1020
    Westminster Underground_1020

    After firing up the first base stations yesterday, Transport for London and Virgin Media just announced the first 80 Tube stations to receive free Wi-Fi for the Olympic Games. All the big names are on the list, with stations such as Oxford Circus, Stratford, Liverpool Street, Leicester Square and King’s Cross scheduled to come online first. The rest of the stations will be up by the end of July with hotspots accessible from the train platform, ticket offices, and escalators.

    These stations will continue offering free Wi-Fi throughout the summer before a tariff is applied after the Paralympic Games. 120 of the Tube's 270 stations will offer Wi-Fi hotspots by the end of the year.

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  • May 31, 2012

    Vlad Savov

    Panasonic to deliver a record-breaking 12,000 TVs to London Olympics

    panasonic london olympics
    panasonic london olympics

    Panasonic has just dished some of the statistics from its Olympics sponsorship this year, the highlight of which is a record-breaking number of TVs provided — over 12,000 — that will span a total display area of 1,730 square meters. That comfortably beats the Beijing Olympics of four years ago, when the relevant numbers were 10,000 TVs and 1,312 square meters, and includes 45 large-screen LED TVs, 47 103-inch plasmas, and two pairs of 152-inch and 145-inch plasma TVs. In Panasonic's words, "anything that has to do with the acquisition or transmission of image" during the London 2012 Olympics will be handled by the company. A small caveat to that statement is that the BBC will be recording and broadcasting some 4K content during the Summer Games that won't be recorded on a Panasonic camera, but Panny will be ready with the displays to show it off.

    Other stats of interest include the provision of 200 professional sound systems to 36 Olympics venues, 400 pro broadcast cameras accompanied by 1,000 monitors, 22 DLP projector screens, and 2,500 new CCTV cameras. Panasonic is branding this year's Games as the first Full HD 3D Olympics and will accordingly record over 200 hours of 3D content, which will be made available for networks to broadcast.

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  • Chris Welch

    May 27, 2012

    Chris Welch

    NBCUniversal London Olympics coverage will total 5,535 hours across TV, web, mobile apps

    NBC Universal logo
    NBC Universal logo

    NBCUniversal says it will broadcast an unprecedented 5,535 hours worth of coverage throughout the 2012 London Olympic Games across cable, the internet, and mobile apps. The centerpiece of the plan is NBCOlympics.com (powered by YouTube), which the company vows will stream each and every sport / event and all 302 medal presentations for the first time ever, ultimately reaching 3,500 hours of content. But an authentication system will restrict certain coverage (anything carried on NBCU's cable-only networks) to active cable or satellite subscribers — bad news for cord cutters looking to keep up every result from London.

    Thankfully NBC has also pledged to step up its network broadcasts. It will carry 272.5 hours of Olympics programming, so you should be able to catch highlights that way assuming you can put up with a tape delay. TV coverage will also extend to NBCUniversal's other cable properties; MSNBC and Telemundo will offer a variety of events, while CNBC (boxing) and Bravo (tennis) will focus on individual sports. A partnership with Panasonic promises 242 hours of 3D footage to distributors that carry the London games.

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  • Sam Byford

    May 22, 2012

    Sam Byford

    David Beckham promotes the Galaxy Note as Samsung's Olympic Games ambassador

    david beckham talking on a galaxy note
    david beckham talking on a galaxy note

    Samsung seems to be getting into the Olympic party spirit — first we had yesterday's announcement of the limited edition Galaxy Note and Galaxy Y, and now we're seeing fruits of the relationship with David Beckham, the company's official representative of the Games. Samsung has released a new commercial featuring the LA Galaxy (see what they did there?) star talking on the Note before kicking out a rendition of Ode to Joy with some drums and a soccer ball. The video was leaked a few days ago, but has now been posted to Samsung's Korean site.

    In keeping with many of Samsung's promotional ventures, the Galaxy Note itself doesn't feature very heavily in the commercial, but it could be a canny move nonetheless. Beckham has made unlikely fashion hits out of fauxhawks and sarongs in the past, so there may be no better icon to convince the masses that it's okay to speak on a gargantuan phone in public.

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  • Aaron Souppouris

    May 16, 2012

    Aaron Souppouris

    BBC's live Olympics video stream will include pause, rewind, alerts, and Twitter integration

    london olympics_1020
    london olympics_1020

    The BBC unveiled its new online video platform in London yesterday, giving us a first glimpse at how it plans to live stream every event from the Summer Olympics. The new browser-based player will offer pause and rewind options, along with live participant information (such as leaderboards and results) and clickable alerts that can take you to other streams when key moments are happening elsewhere. There'll also be integrated data-driven profiles of the competing athletes that will pull in their Twitter feed alongside public reactions. Anyone that's ever used BBC's iPlayer will know it's not the highest quality stream, and thankfully the broadcaster has taken note; the new player will now stream at up to 3.5Mbps, up from iPlayer's maximum quality of 1.5Mbps.

    One-upping NBC's Olympics coverage, the BBC will stream over 2,500 hours of content, which it plans to serve to the British public via 24 channels. The corporation is working on dedicated apps for iOS and Android, but will also provide a mobile version of its video site for use on other platforms. It also plans to introduce a "standardized" connected TV application that will offer live and catch-up video to Virgin Media TiVo, PlayStation 3, Sony smart TVs, and "other platforms yet to be announced." If watching the Olympics on a tiny screen doesn't do it for you, BBC News reported yesterday that a number of big screens will be erected around London for the public to watch the games on.

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  • Dante D'Orazio

    May 14, 2012

    Dante D'Orazio

    London traffic lights rigged to win International Olympic Committee's favor

    London Oxford Street stock 1020px
    London Oxford Street stock 1020px

    A Vanity Fair article profiling the political journey that Britain took to secure the 2012 Olympics reports that the bid committee went as far as messing with traffic signals to ensure that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) visitors were impressed with the city's infrastructure. In a story that sounds worthy of a political thriller (or a Bourne film), CEO of the London bid committee Sir Keith Mills says that the team planted GPS trackers in each of the IOC evaluator's vehicles, planned their routes through the city, and followed them using London's infamous CCTV system to make sure that they were not hindered by traffic. The operation took place in the London Traffic Control Center and "when they came up to traffic lights... we turned them green."

    Whether or not the traffic signal antics convinced the IOC members that London's transport isn't as congested as it's made out to be, London did ultimately win the bid from front-runners Paris, Madrid, New York, and Moscow. Part of the agreement to host the games has required the government to enforce strict rules on Olympics branding, and the infrastructure build-up has been a massive undertaking. Other than the addition of Wi-Fi networks in the Underground and other locations to help handle an expected spectrum overload, the event's costs have expanded from an original estimate of $3.9 billion to $18 billion, according to Vanity Fair.

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  • Aaron Souppouris

    Apr 18, 2012

    Aaron Souppouris

    NBC's Olympic portal goes live, ready to stream all 32 sports

    National Gallery_1020
    National Gallery_1020

    Unlike NBC's Olympic streams in the past, which used Microsoft's Silverlight technology, the London 2012 coverage will be powered by YouTube, although content will only be available via NBC's site. In the UK, the BBC will have twenty four HD Olympic streams available, covering every sport and providing a total of around 2,500 hours of live coverage. Cordella has the same lofty ambitions for NBC's streams. "Whatever is on schedule that day, if cameras are on it, we'll stream it." NBC claims that between the live streams and regular television programs it will offer live coverage from every event in the game.

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  • Chris Ziegler

    Apr 12, 2012

    Chris Ziegler

    Fearing Olympic traffic jams, London data center staff will sleep with servers

    Interxion sleeping pods
    Interxion sleeping pods

    During the upcoming Olympic Games, Dutch data center management company Interxion has revealed plans to bunk employees in its London facilities right next to the servers they maintain, fearing that the influx of visitors and event staff could create traffic jams and mass transit overloads that would prevent them from getting into the office in a reasonable amount of time. As with most hosting services, Interxion has service-level agreements with many (if not all) of its customers that guarantee a certain amount of uptime — and without staff showing up for work, that could be a difficult guarantee to stand behind. The pods come from a British company called Podtime and are primarily geared for quick naps, but it is possible to sleep overnight in one — as long as you can drift off to the hum of hundreds of enterprise servers in the background.

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  • Tom Warren

    Mar 27, 2012

    Tom Warren

    The Cloud to offer 60 minutes of free Wi-Fi at London Overground stations

    London Overground
    London Overground

    Commuters using London's Overground stations will soon be able to take advantage of 60 minutes free Wi-Fi access each day, thanks to a partnership between London Overground Rail Operations Limited and The Cloud. The Wi-Fi rollout, which kicks off in the summer, will see all 56 London Overground train stations fitted with hotspots by the end of the year.

    Major stations including Willesden Junction, New Cross Gate, Hackney Central, and Shepherd's Bush will all let commuters sign on to the free Wi-Fi after a one-time registration process is completed, providing internet access at the stations themselves — not within the trains. Once 60 minutes of free use is complete, users will be prompted to continue using the service on a pay-as-you-go basis. The deal follows a similar rollout by Virgin Media, who will have free hotspots in around 80 of London Underground's 270 stations in time for the London Olympics this summer. Virgin's Wi-Fi service will only work at tube platforms, but unlike The Cloud's offering non-Virgin customers will have to pay to use the service after the Olympics.

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  • Nathan Ingraham

    Mar 20, 2012

    Nathan Ingraham

    The Olympics may cause a 'massive hit' on London's internet infrastructure

    london olympics_1020
    london olympics_1020

    The Olympics can be a major boon for the hosting city, bringing global attention and tourists to the economy... but it can also make things rather difficult from an infrastructure perspective. This year, there's a particular concern for how London's internet and mobile phone networks will hold up under the deluge of people streaming the games and tweeting up a storm throughout — there's even the possibility of data rationing, though it sounds like that option is unlikely to be used. James Blessing of Britain's Internet Service Providers Association said that "there is the potential for a massive hit on the infrastructure," while UK wireless carrier colorfully said "this summer it's going to be the equivalent of England playing in the World Cup final on Christmas Day, every day for the 17 days of the games."

    The biggest potential contributor to these issues (not just in London but across the UK) is the BBC, which is planning to stream every event from the game live. The BBC is predicting that this will generate 1TB of traffic per second during peak hours, the equivalent of 1,500 people downloading a full-length DVD quality movie every minute. Down at Olympic Park, a Wi-Fi network with 1,800 access points is being built to keep the Olympic staff online, with an estimated 60GB of data moving across that network every second. And with an estimated crowd of 250,000 gathering every day at Olympic Park (including 80,000 in Olympic Stadium), getting mobile data service will likely be a challenge. At the very least, visitors should be able to get online while riding the London Underground.

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  • Sam Byford

    Mar 15, 2012

    Sam Byford

    Virgin Media to provide free Wi-Fi on London Underground during Olympics

    wi-fi and Bluetooth
    wi-fi and Bluetooth

    The Mayor of London's office has announced that Virgin Media is to provide free Wi-Fi on the London Underground during the Olympics and Paralympics this summer. We knew before that a plan was in place with an undisclosed service provider, but this is the first time we've heard solid details. Virgin will have hotspots in around 80 of the Tube's 270 stations (down from the 120 initially planned), and the service will only work on platforms, ticket offices, and escalators — no access while the trains are on the move, unfortunately. The service will be free when it initially goes live in July 2012, but will later be offered to London commuters at a price.

    The finalization of the deal will come as a relief to Transport for London, which has been trying to secure mobile access before this summer's Games for a while. Last year a plan by Huawei to provide cellular access throughout the network fell through, but with further options from Starbucks and the largest free Wi-Fi zone in Europe it doesn't look like tourists will find it too difficult to get connected on the go.

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