Is Brazil’s Wireless Network Ready for the Olympics?

Not-So-Marvelous Internet Speed in the “Marvelous City”

Next to the casual corruption scandal, virus carrying mosquitoes, and human remains washing up on the capital city’s shore, you’d think not much else could go wrong for Brazil in the weeks leading up to the start of the 2016 Summer Olympics. Right?

Well, actually, there’s quite a bit more that could go wrong. This includes the nation’s digital infrastructure, which is feared to collapse under the impending pressure of roughly 500,000 smart-phone equipped tourists descending on the city on August 5th.

According to a recent study by Dynatrace, an application management software company, the Domain Name System has slowed down nearly 100% over the last ten months (DNS is the amount of time that it takes for you to access a web address.)

While other countries in the western world have seen their network speeds rise dramatically in the last few years, Brazil’s speeds have remained stagnant. This could be a serious issue for app developers who have built their products using the network speeds of their native country. When somebody attempts to use a popular app such as Uber while visiting Rio this summer, they may find themselves experiencing frequent time-outs on an app that revolves around timeliness.

David Jones, a digital performance expert at Dynatrace said, “Something as simple as going to the Team USA site in Brazil will lead to a timeout and error message. People will be showing up in Brazil accessing applications that have been designed for speeds that are representative of their home countries. People’s lives are so wrapped behind their digital devices. This will cause a lot of consternation for people who rely on their device.”

We’ll have to wait to see how the city deals with this impending wireless nightmare, but right now, it doesn’t look like it’s going to be pretty…