Vodafone To Sponsor America’s Cup

Vodafone has signed a major sponsorship deal to become the official mobile
network provider for the 32nd America’s Cup sailing race which takes place this
summer in Spain.

Vodafone’s contract for the race, which takes place between 23 June and 07
July, makes them the eighth official sponsor for the event.

Vodafone has collaborated on the deployment of the 3G and HSDPA technology
that covers the race area (over 600 square kilometres) and Port America’s Cup.
Vodafone customers on the race course, at the Port America’s Cup, in the city of
Valencia and along the coast of the Valencian province will be able to enjoy
3.6Mb/s of speed of data transmissions.

Additionally, the mobile network operator has collaborated with the
Meteorological Data Service run by the 32nd America’s Cup (MDS), which provides
weather data from the race course to all of the teams. Vodafone has provided a
GPRS modem for each of the 22 weather buoys, to ensure reliable data
transmission of information critical to the teams and organisers of the 32nd
America’s Cup.

Antonio Alemán, the director of corporate business unit for Vodafone stated:
‘Vodafone Spain identifies itself with the capacity of innovation, avant-garde
technology and the spirit of excellence that the 32nd America’s Cup embodies.
For us is a very satisfying to be able to collaborate with the America’s Cup by
offering advanced services of mobile communications that will benefit all
participants, the organisers and the public.’

Britain announced last week that it was to enter the 2009 America’s Cup race
through the creation of the Origin team, funded by London 2012 vice chairman Sir
Keith Mills.