Telecoms situation "critical" at World Cup opening stadium
Football fans attending the World Cup opening game may have issues accessing the web via their mobile devices due to the impossibility of an agreement between telecom operators and the sporting venue.
Whoever tries to access the internet at the event will have to rely only on data packets from their own operators, since the agreement for the installation of a Wi-Fi network is unlikely to be finished in time at the Itaquerão stadium in São Paulo, since the room where the basic equipment would be installed is not yet available.
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The concerns were voiced by the head of the National Union of Telephone Companies and Mobile Service Providers in Brazil (SindiTelebrasil) Eduardo Levy, during an interview to Brazilian radio CBN this week.
"We have nothing at Itaquerão. This worries us a lot. We have to get this room at least 120 days in advance to test everything. And we still have to negotiate the Wi-Fi network," said SindiTelebrasil's director Eduardo Levy, in an interview with CBN radio this week.
Levy said the situation is similar in other host cities. The World Cup starts in 139 days.
During a FIFA press conference in Zurich yesterday (23) Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff said that building stadiums is "relatively simple" and that "the government will do what it takes to stage the best World Cup and that includes stadiums, airports, ports and everything that is needed to host all visitors."