The Winter Olympics are just around the corner, but you can already track your favorite athletes on social media. And the athletes can send out pictures and videos faster than anyone on the planet thanks to a Bay Area company.
Tech giant Intel is using Pyeongchang as something of a test site with Olympic athletes -- who are prolific when it comes to social media -- as their subjects to see how well our gadgets work with the latest super high-speed connections.
"The 5G Experiment" is quietly making Pyeongchang the fastest place on Earth when it comes to wireless technology.
"The demand is huge," said Aicha Evans, who is heading the experiment for Intel. "You can take 5G, deploy it, and see how it is behaving in a real world environment."
Over the next few weeks everything from phones to drones in Pyeongchang will be faster than ever with a post-Olympics goal of global coverage.
"We want to bring 5G broadly into the United States and then worldwide in 2020," Evans said.
But for now it is great news if you're following your favorite athletes or country on social media. And, while you're at it, keep an eye out for Olympics-branded driverless cars.
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"We will actually have a 5G autonomous driving test site," Evans said.
Yep, cars will be 5G as well in Pyeongchang.
We should mention that Intel is one of several companies working on bringing 5G to United States gadget users. We'll check back after the Olympic Games to see how it worked in South Korea.
Stay tuned.
