WAKE FOREST,Sprint’s Carolinas division will be showcasing much of its latest technology and capabilities in support of the 2005 US Open golf tournament, which opens today in Pinehurst.
“We have planned and prepared for this event on various levels since we learned following the 1999 US Open that the tournament would be coming back again,” said Sprint’s Pat Gree, who led the Pinehurst effort.
Sprint has laid more than 2 miles of fiber optic cable for high-speed communications as well as 3.3 million feet of copper cable for use by media, tournament officials and visitors to the tournament.
An installed wireless network will service more than 400 Wi-Fi cards distributed to the media for use with laptop computers, and more than 500 traditional phones have been installed. Media requests included 650 separate lines and 60 lines for broadband use.
A high-speed wireless network with 14 access points will be used by photographers for distribution of news photos.
Since use of wireless phones is limited during the tournament, Sprint also installed 88 payphones.
Additionally, Sprint will have 14 employees on site for customer support.
In all, Sprint has spent more than $500,000 on infrastructure for the Open, which runs through Sunday.
Sprint: www.sprint.com
