Nokia Siemens Networks announced today that, together with Swisssom, the largest Swiss mobile operator, it has been and would still be transmitting images from Euro 2008 arenas for UEFA's IBC (International Broadcast Centre). After reaching the IBC, the images go worldwide, bringing the spirit of Euro 2008 into the houses of football fans.

This basically means that about half of the Euro 2008 matches that we saw until now and that we will see from now on reach us thanks to Swisscom, Nokia Siemens and the fiber-optic network that the latter has deployed. Why only half of the matches? Because Swisscom (which announced recently that it would carry Apple's iPhone 3G) and Nokia Siemens Networks are in charge only of the four Euro arenas from Switzerland: Letzigrund from Zurich, Stade de Genève from Geneva, Stade de Suisse from Berne and St. Jakob-Park from Basel.

Guido Garrone, Head of Network & IT from Swisscom, declared in a press release issued today on Nokia Siemens' website: "For this high exposure project we needed a very secure solution to build a special network. We will be sending very high volumes of data at different times from different stadia to the broadcast center, thus flexibility and reliability are a must. The solution from Nokia Siemens Networks has fulfilled all the above criteria."

Michael Finkenzeller, Strategy and Portfolio Manager DWDM at Nokia Siemens Networks, added: "We are sure that through the DWDM platform Swisscom will contribute to the success of UEFA EURO 2008 and the enjoyment of the football fans. The unique flexibility of the system shows through in this project."

Hosted by Austria and Switzerland, Euro 2008 debuted on the 7th of June, with the Switzerland - Czech Republic match, won by the Czech team with 1 - 0 (unfortunately for the host-country and luckily for Czech Republic). The competition will end on the 29th of June, when two of the current 16 teams will play the grand finale in Vienna, on the Ernst Happel Stadium which has a capacity of 53,000 seats.