‘Mega NBN’ to deliver gold medal internet to Games

A “MEGA NBN” style wi-fi network will be built across the Gold Coast for the Commonwealth Games.

The network will power the internet of athletes and officials, allow media to upload and send video files and provide the fibre optic cables to carry the broadcast to about 1.5 billion spectators. Goldoc yesterday announced international company Cisco would be building the infrastructure to ensure the Games went off without a technical hitch.

“Our role here is to help turn on the Games,” Cisco Australia vice-president Ken Boal said.

“It’s like a mega NBN – it’s a big fibre interconnected network that the Cisco technology sits on top of.”

Cyber attacks will be the biggest challenge the network faces but Mr Boal said Cisco was prepared.

“We have learnt a lot around cyber security, how to best layer security into the network to support the different stakeholders,” he said

Mr Boal said most Games spectators, officials and athletes would not even notice the network.

“All of the material has to work on this reliably,” he said.

“With technology there is always things that can go wrong. The design is built with certain levels of redundancy.”

Cisco were chosen to build the network after their work at the Rio, London and Beijing Olympics as well as the Glasgow, Delhi and Melbourne Commonwealth Games.

Goldoc chairman Peter Beattie said ensuring athletes and officials had access to fast internet was vital for “branding” the city.

“If they have a great experience they are going to share that,” he said.

“It means the Gold Coast can get teams training here prior to the Olympics in Tokyo. It also means they can get other teams for post-season and pre-season events.”

OUR ROLE HERE IS TO HELP TURN ON THE GAMES CISCO AUSTRALIA VICE-PRESIDENT KEN BOAL