Olympics loses tech provider The London Olympics and its network infrastructure provider Nortel have agreed to split. The London 2012 organising committee said the contract with Nortel had ended on good terms. The move could cost the Olympics as much as £10m, because as well as providing infrastructure, Nortel was also a "Tier One" sponsor of the event. …
Well who can say that they are surprised by this?
Apart from being insolvent, the company has shown just how shallow its entire "Ethics in business is really important to us" line really was, with hundreds of staff laid off without even an attempt to satisfy the legal requirements, let alone any redundancy compensation. Not to mention all those who took voluntary redundancy towards the end of 2008 who were told (mysteriously) that they had to wait until Jan 2009 for their settlement - which of course never materialised with the company going into administration on 14th Jan (take a peek at http://www.shameonyounortel.co.uk)
Given all this, did anyone SERIOUSLY think that they could retain their position as a tier-1 2012 provider? And if they did, what were they smoking....
Olympic = describe something BIG.
WHY do I have this nagging feeling that the UK Olympics will be the biggest flop since a fat man dived head first into the swimming pool? Everything that i've seen so far from the pink undecipherable logo to London ancient transport system to the ever ballooning budget to workmen drilling through BT's underground back haul cable means tax payers will be footing the bill for another decade minimum.
Exactly. I'm a UK native, and I don't know anyone who's excited by the Olympics. The only people enthusing about it are the ones close enough to either bask in it's glory, or more likely, bask in it's bank account.
The only long term benefit I'm hoping to see is the mobile sweat box (sorry, tube), might get some air conditioning. I'm lucky that I don't work in London, but even on a weekend trip a couple of weeks ago I bailed from the tube and walked two stops just because I couldn't face changing line and melting any longer.
Honestly, who came up with this whole idea of needing an Olympic village etc etc? We have a stadium, the new Wembley, we have pools (although there is actually a criminal lack of Olympic length ones, but I'm sure we can find one), why does everything have to be next to each other? The fact the sailing is going to be on the South coast proves that they can manage the logistics. Guess we should be grateful they didn't try to dig a new Solent below Stratford!
Personally I think I will be taking advantage of some empty plane seats (I love a haggle) leaving the UK when it opens, and some empty plane seats to come back when it finishes.
Around 1980-ish I had to go on training in Grenoble. That was only a dozen years after Grenoble hosted the Olympics. And my recollection of the place was that it was a hovel of the highest magnitude. The "Olympic Village" would've had the down and outs turning their noses up.
London might think it is going to get some much needed investment as a result of the 2012 version. But after the dust has died down and the world has gone elsewhere they've more than likely got an eyesore on their doorstep.
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