[March 07, 2007]

Tadiran Telecom Wins Olympic Transportation Competition

By Erik Linask

Associate Editor,
Internet Telephony magazine

The communications systems many of the world’s largest businesses choose certainly makes for some eye-catching news — and the bigger the company, the bigger the news. But there aren’t many companies that attract attention on a global scale as do the Olympic Games, to take place in Beijing, China in August 2008. That, of course, presents an opportunity for communications and other technology vendors to show their capabilities on a global podium. But they must secure the contracts first, which is a process in itself.

For the Beijing games, the most recent contract to be awarded was the communications for the transportation system at the Olympics, including Beijing Subway lines 4 and 5, the Airport Express subway line, and the Beijing Airport Command Center. Globally known firms like Siemens, Cisco, Alcatel, Ericsson (News - Alert), and others, including local supplier Feihing, bid on the contract, but were all beaten out by Tadiran Telecom. Tadiran (News - Alert) likely was able to beat the prices of several of the competitors, but it also has previous experience in the Chinese transportation market, which provides confidence that it can complete the task on time and within budget.

The deal is important because, from the Olympic Games side, while it doesn’t represent the infrastructure to distribute live and tape delayed broadcasts to the world, it is a critical part of ensuring athletes, representatives, and guests all are able to get to and from Olympic venues. Without a reliable, effective system in place, it would be virtually impossible to manage the human traffic overload that will hit the city next summer.

To handle the influx, the Beijing Subway’s #4 line will be equipped with a network of 27 Tadiran Coral systems, including an advanced network management control. By the end of December 2006, 24 metro stations, a control center, a car depot, and a car lot are all expected to have been outfitted with Tadiran equipment. Before that, by the end of June 2007, the #5 line will have 28 Coral systems installed to support its 22 metro stations, control center, and car lot.

The ability to communicate between stations, as well as the depot, is crucial, especially during peak periods, to ensure everyone can get where they need to be when they need to be there. With the ability to combine voice, data, and video on the same converged platform, the Tadiran network also will enable improved and faster traffic flow analysis, security, and other mechanisms to make the transportation system safer and more efficient.

“The Beijing Subway is using Tadiran’s solution because it offers a complete, cost-effective, converged communications system that supports voice, data, video and advanced communications that can be easily customized to the special requirements of this project,” said Zeev Aviv, vice president of sales & marketing at Tadiran.

Other deployments of Tadiran’s solution in Chinese transportation projects — which likely were a factor in the decision to use the Coral System for the Olympics — include Dalian International, Huhhot, Tianjin, Wuhan, Zhenzhou, Hainan Phoenix, and Wuxi airports, and Internal Metro Express in Beijing Airport.

“The Beijing Subway joins our long list of prestigious customers who appreciate the versatility, feature-rich and enhanced IP

technology of Tadiran’s telecommunication systems with a wide range of networking capabilities and solutions that fits the transportation segment,” added Aviv.

Erik Linask is Associate Editor of INTERNET TELEPHONY, IMS Magazine, and SIP Magazine. Prior to joining TMC (News - Alert), he was Managing Editor at Global Custodian, an international securities services publication. To see more of his articles, please visit Erik Linask’s columnist page.