Cellhire puts out call for global events (From York Press)

Cellhire puts out call for global events

10:49am Friday 2nd November 2012 in Business news By Julie Hayes, Business editor

A YORK communications company which developed an innovative system to keep Olympic Games officials in the loop hopes to provide the service to other large global events.

Cellhire partnered with regional communications company Mobile Tornado, based in Harrogate, to provide the system which provides an alternative to walkie-talkies.

Cellhire, which was formed in 1987 and is based at Clifton Park, York, with offices around the world, provides short-term mobile communications for global events.

It partnered with Mobile Tornado to develop the Push To Talk (PTT) system to overcome the challenge of limited frequencies, while many agencies were expected to be using walkie talkies over the summer.

The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) used the system which uses a mobile phone network to provide the instant one-to-one or one-to-many communications possible with walkie-talkies.

The service enabled LOCOG to keep in contact with its key teams transporting the athletes, committee and IOC members to and from venues throughout the UK.

James Hepton, marketing manager of Cellhire, said the games were the first event where they had the opportunity to use the technology on such a scale and it worked without fault.

He said: “It opens the door for Cellhire to target events of a similar scale because we now have an outstanding example in our London Olympics success.

“Our partnership with Mobile Tornado has been given an immense boost by this success and we intend to use this as a stepping stone to take Push To Talk to more major events.”

A spokesperson for LOCOG said, “The Cellhire Push-to-Talk product and the corresponding service levels provided by Cellhire during the London Olympics were of an excellent standard and helped contribute to the seamless running of the games.”