The Beijing Olympics Call Center opened a hotline on Tuesday to
offer information about the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
The hotline, which is reached by dialing 86-10-12308, only
provides information about volunteers and the torch relay route at
present.
People overseas who want to be volunteers can call the number to
seek information, as the service is offered both in Chinese and
English. The service will be available in more languages during the
Games.
The recruiting of foreign volunteers started in March, according
to call center staff.
More information related to the Olympics, such as detailed
information of sports events, accommodation, medical care, travel
and transportation will be available when they receive
authorization from the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008
Olympic Games (BOCOG), according to the call center.
The hotline can receive 1,050 incoming calls at the same time,
according to the service provider, China Netcom, the country's
second largest fixed-line operator.
The call center, which serves as an important communication
channel for the Games, also opened a ticket hotline (952008) and an
Olympic commodity hotline (800-810-0010), both in Chinese and
English.
People can call the commodity hotline to find out information
about Olympic goods, for instance, to find out whether the goods
they have bought are authentic. However, people still have to go to
franchise shops to buy the goods.
China Netcom also opened a communications bureau in
Beijing Tuesday to provide fixed-line communication services
exclusively for the 2008 Games.
The bureau will directly provide services including voice, data
and wireless broadband to organizations such as the technological
command center of the Organizing Committee, the Olympic Village,
the International Broadcasting Center and the National Stadium,
said Yang Yichun, head of the technology department of the
BOCOG.
China Netcom has launched a communication network for the
Olympic venues and will connect 19 of them with high-speed
communication services, Yang said.
The bureau will start its work by offering services to the
forthcoming pre-Olympic "Good Luck Beijing" test events in August
and September, said Zhao Jidong, senior vice president of China
Netcom.
(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2007)