Telenor lifts the gaming experience online
(Fornebu, December 18th) One of the fastest growing broadband trends in Norway is the popularity of online gaming. In order to meet demand, Telenor has for the first time ever entered into traffic agreements with the games developers Blizzard and Valve to give the gaming generation a unique gaming experience.
For online gamers, it is not just good broadband capacity that is key to the best gaming experience - it is also about how fast the data can be sent and retrieved from the huge, international game servers during play. Too much delay might be the difference between victory and failure when playing in real time.
'For a long time, Telenor has been working with the biggest hitters in the gaming world to secure even better quality for Norwegian and Nordic online games, and now we have new peering agreements in place with Blizzard and Valve Corporation, which in practice bring their servers closer to our customers,' says Snorre Corneliussen, Telenor Norway's Broadband Expert.
Straight into Telenor's network
Telenor has its own Internet infrastructure that brings global traffic into Norway. This kind of traffic is known as peering, which means that traffic is faster between Telenor's network and foreign Internet networks. A large share of Telenor's international Internet traffic is peering.
'When online gamers retrieve information and play in real time with other gamers around the world, it isn't necessarily broadband capacity that determines the gaming experience - instead it's how much delay there is in the data traffic. Even if data is retrieved regularly, the volumes of data are actually relatively small. The challenge that many gamers will recognise is latency - the delay between the server and the computer or games console at home. Delays like this are affected by the many levels the information has to pass through on its journey from abroad to Norway,' explains Corneliussen.
The traffic agreements that have been entered into with Blizzard and Valve Corporation mean that traffic is released directly from the companies' European servers into Telenor's network.
'What this means is that the delay is reduced thanks to these new traffic agreements. In other words, online gamers will now enjoy an even better gaming experience, and the agreements mean they will be able to respond to what other players are doing during the game more quickly,' says Corneliussen.
Taking online gaming seriously
Blizzard is one of the world's largest game makers, and is the name behind titles such as World of Warcraft and Starcraft, while Valve Corporation have released popular games like Half-Life and Counter Strike, while also supplying the much-loved games platform, Steam.
With an increase in traffic of more than 50 per cent in the last year, Telenor has also noted the increasing interest in broadcast transmissions of video games.Several Norwegian gaming stars have as many viewers on their YouTube pages as an average Norwegian niche TV channel.
'This is a phenomenon that has gained a foothold over time, but in the last year traffic for gaming transmission services has accelerated rapidly,' explains Corneliussen, who carefully follows the habits of Norwegians online.
'It is always important for us to follow developments and to ensure that our customers have the best possible experience when using the services they request online. Online gaming is no exception, which is why we are very pleased to have these new agreements in place with two huge games developers,' concludes Corneliussen.
