Pacnet delivers additional bandwidth into China to support Beijing 2008 Olympic Games

    HONG KONG, Aug. 21 /Xinhua-EMWNews/ -- Pacnet, the major subsea

capacity provider to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, has provisioned over

20 Gbps of dedicated bandwidth through two cable landing points in China,

to support the broadcast of the event that is expected to draw a record

audience of four billion viewers.



    



    "This is truly the 'Bandwidth Olympics' that we had anticipated, with

broadcasters requiring added bandwidth to support the high-definition

television broadcasts as well as the thousands of hours of streaming video

broadcasts," said Bill Barney, Chief Executive Officer of Pacnet. Major

broadcasters around the world have committed to covering the 17-day event

with over 8,700 hours of online video coverage of the 302 events at the

Olympics.



    "By providing the bandwidth that is enabling this vastly expanded

online coverage, we expect this Olympics to set a new record in terms of

the number of online viewers, surpassing that of the Athens 2004 Olympic

Games. Add to this, the millions of user-generated video clips from the

audience that are being uploaded on video-sharing web sites and it should

come as no surprise that this will be the most watched Olympics ever," Mr

Barney added.



    As a key partner of China Netcom, the exclusive fixed-line

telecommunications partner of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, Pacnet has

provisioned dedicated bandwidth on its pan-Asian EAC-C2C subsea cable

network through a landing station in Qingdao, the key venue for the sailing

events of the Olympics, as well as through another landing station in

Shanghai.



    "Supporting the communication needs of the Olympics was one of the key

considerations for landing EAC-C2C into Qingdao," said Wilfred Kwan, Chief

Technology Officer of Pacnet. "Our next-generation network currently

supports the broadcast and communications channels across the 37 Olympic

venues, carrying IP-based video streams, high definition television

broadcasts, as well as provisioning high-speed Internet access," said Mr

Kwan. "Additionally, with EAC-C2C having dual landing points into China, we

offer the diverse paths and the capacity to provision more capacity if

necessary."



    "The capacity on EAC-C2C has already lent to the successful broadcast

of the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Olympics on 8 August 2008,"

noted Lily Zhang, Managing Director of Pacnet China. The five-hour ceremony

saw over 30,000 minutes of coverage from major international broadcasters

to a worldwide audience estimated at about a billion. "Our capacity will

also play a critical role in the broadcasting of the closing ceremony on 24

August 2008, which we expect to be just as well-watched and hence demand

similar capacity requirements," added Ms Zhang.

    About Pacnet



    Pacnet is the region's largest independent telecommunications service

provider, formed from the operational merger of Asia Netcom and Pacific

Internet. Pacnet owns and operates EAC-C2C, Asia's longest submarine cable

infrastructure at 36,800 km, with a design capacity of 10.24 Tbps. With a

comprehensive portfolio of city-to-city connectivity, data communications

and IP-based solutions and services, Pacnet is able to deliver solutions

for carriers and large enterprises, as well as small/medium businesses. The

company is headquartered in Hong Kong and Singapore with offices in all key

markets in Asia and North America. For more information, please visit:

http://www.pacnet.com .






    For more information, please contact:



     Lorain Wong

     Pacnet

     Tel:   +852-2121-2973

     Email: [email protected]



     Roland Lim

     Pacnet

     Tel:   +852-2121-2975

     Email: [email protected]