Sponsored by
Olympic mobile phone service goes for gold
A MOBILE phone operator has linked up with China's biggest mobile network to offer a tourists' survival guide to the Beijing Olympic Games.
Cellhire, based in York, is the first UK operator to buy airtime from China Mobile.
It plans to provide city guides, Games venue information and 300 useful Mandarin phrases on the mobiles of tourists and athletes travelling to Beijing.
Matt Bennett, managing director of Cellhire, also said the package will be significantly cheaper than the typical roaming services offered by other UK mobile networks.
Cellhire's guide will include information on Olympic stadia as well as details of restaurants, bars and other tourist attractions.
Mr Bennet said: "Visiting China may be an onerous prospect for a lot of travellers. Our solution makes it a lot less daunting."
The Cellhire handsets will be able to speak a series of phrases – such as "Take me to..." and "How much does that cost?" – to help travellers negotiate their way around the Chinese capital.
The phones will also allow foreigners to access a real time interpreting service 24 hours a day.
Cellhire hopes to cash in on the large number of British athletes and their support staff, journalists and spectators who will travel to the Games.
"Many people will travel to Beijing for a couple of days but some will stay for all the Games and then for the Paralympics, which follow them," Mr Bennett said.
"You should not assume that everyone there can speak English.
"We will provide services like directions to the venues and information about the running order of events and we are not aware of anyone else offering this level of information."
Mr Bennett said its Olympic package was now "good to go" and he has two Chinese staff working in a Beijing office already.
Cellhire, which also has offices in the US, France and Japan, will send four or five of its own staff to Beijing before the Games start in August.
It will operate the service by selling airtime from China Mobile.
Cellhire said a UK customer making 30 minutes of calls a day – split evenly between calls home, local calls and incoming calls – over two weeks in China would save 240 compared with the roaming service offered by other UK networks.
It said the service would cost 630 on other UK networks compared with about 390 on Cellhire.
There is no minimum call spend and English voicemail is activated when the customer arrives in China. It also offers China-wide coverage.
Cellhire, which was set up in 1987 and won the Queen's Award for International Trade in 2005, arranged the deal after 18 months of negotiations with China Mobile.
Mr Bennett also provided an insight into the world of business inside the Communist nation.
"It is extremely difficult and time-consuming. China is a very hierarchical society and you do sense there is an undercurrent which makes people a lot more guarded."
It is not the first time Cellhire has offered special packages for a major sports event – two years ago it offered phone rental, data and Blackberry services to journalists, sponsors, sports clubs and corporate clients at the football World Cup in Germany.
Email to a friend
Print this page- Leeds lose Ward to Palace: Is there anyone they can afford now?
- Sheffield Wednesday leaving it late to hijack Leeds United over Ward
- As Snodgrass dithers over Leeds, Warnock throws a lifeline
- Ball is in Leeds United’s court over contract - Snodgrass
- Police turning blind eye to Asian voter fraud, says MP
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: East
