The Women’s World Cup is expected to be watched by 2 billion fans around the world, says FIFA
Cisco has been appointed by FIFA as the official network infrastructure provider for the Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023. In this role, Cisco will provide connectivity throughout “the entire tournament ecosystem” and in all nine hosting cities, said FIFA.
“With Cisco’s expertise and solutions, we will have a seamless and securely connected tournament experience,” commented association’s Secretary General, Fatma Samoura. Cisco’s network will, of course, support FIFA’s competition venues, but it will also connect additional facilities that are critical to the tournament’s operations, like the International Broadcast Centre (IBC), where the tech company’s IP Fabric for Media solution will be deployed to deliver 4K content to the potentially 2 billion fans around the world.
“The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 is unequivocally one of the marquee global sporting events, and we are proud that Cisco will be the trusted provider to connect and protect the network on which the entire ecosystem will operate,” said Cisco’s Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Carrie Palin. “We’re committed to enabling a connected experience for football fans worldwide and are proud of our role in supporting the game of football and using it as a platform to make a positive impact on players and fans.”
Further, Cisco’s Networking Academy, which provides free IT educational courses and career growth opportunities, will use this partnership as an opportunity to offer a local, all-female team of students the chance to gain hands-on technical experience by assisting with the installation and servicing of the network.
While the technical details of the Cisco deployments for FIFA were not disclosed, the company has previously deployed more than 1,200 Wi-Fi 6 access points in Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, as well as enough 9100 series Access Points to simultaneously connect 128,000 users at the Fira Barcelona. Cisco has also worked with partners like Verizon Business to bring 5G and edge capabilities to venues and stadiums.
