London Olympics fans told not to tweet during events
(CBS News) The London Olympics will not be live tweeted - at least, not without sacrificing reliable television coverage, officials told fans Sunday.
Fans of the Olympic Games were told to only send urgent text messages and tweets to avoid a network overload that would affect television coverage.
Twitter to NBC: Livestream the opening ceremony
London 2012 gives Airbnb a boost in bookings
According to Reuters, commentators on Saturday's men's cycling race could not report the distance between leaders and the rest of the pack because GPS devices traveling with cyclists failed to deliver real-time data.
Commentator Chris Boardman resorted to using his own watch to estimate timing in the race, the Guardian reports. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which runs the Olympic Broadcasting Service (OBS), said it was fans texting and tweeting that caused the network traffic jam.
Fans took their frustration out on Twitter by sending angry tweets, exacerbating the network problem.
"This is the Olympic games. Why can't someone tell us the gap?" @Mark__Bright tweeted Saturday.
"From my understanding, One[sic] network was oversubscribed, and OBS are trying to spread the load to other providers," marketing director for the IOC Mark Adams told the Guardian. However, service providers are denying claims that the network was overloaded.
The Olympics official communications service providers - BT, Vodafone and O2 - claim they did not see any network problems, Reuters reports.
While the organizers, networks and telecommunications companies play the blame game, fans are being asked to curb their use of social media on mobile devices.
"We don't want to stop people engaging in this by social media but perhaps they might consider only sending urgent updates," Adams said.
