Qwest and its clients will be prepared for the Democratic National Convention in August, the company’s Colorado president said Thursday.
Speaking to a group of technology executives who will play a role in the DNC, Qwest’s Chuck Ward said the company will be able to handle the heavy flow of high-speed Internet traffic expected to fly from the Pepsi Center during the event without any hiccups in existing services.
Qwest is the “official telecommunications provider” for the DNC.
“It will be world-class and go off without a hitch,” Ward said. “We’ve done a lot of planning for our infrastructure. We’re not doing anything to affect our customers.”
About 50,000 people are expected at the four-day event, which officially begins Aug. 25, although delegates, media and dignitaries are expected days before. Those visitors are expected to have an economic impact of more than $162 million.
Qwest is establishing a network-operations and network call center near the Pepsi Center. The company already provides communications services to the arena but will begin laying more fiber in July to prepare for the DNC.
To meet the increased demands, the company will bring in employees from other states in its territory to handle the additional workload.
Some of the attendees at Thursday’s meeting left with additional questions on whether Qwest would be able to handle their particular needs.
“We would like to network between venues for people that want to do events at the Cable Center,” said Lisza Gulyas, director of events for the Cable Center at the University of Denver. “We’re hosting events for groups that would like live feeds from the Pepsi Center and the ability to conduct interviews remotely.”
Kimberly S. Johnson: 303-954-1088 or kjohnson@denverpost.com
