Convention Connections

The technology requirements for the Republican National Convention in St. Paul last September and the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August were beyond that of any political convention in history. Since the 2004 presidential election, the increasing importance of the Internet—as well as the omnipresent cell phone—to television networks and online news outlets has stepped up the need for telecom connections.

The telecommunications and data infrastructure necessary to support the Republicans’ event, which took place in the Xcel Energy Center, Roy Wilkins Auditorium, and River Centre, was nothing short of massive and elaborate. Media—which made up 15,000 of the convention estimated 45,000 visitors—needed generous bandwidth and super-fast upload speeds, and security personnel had strict requirements for phone and Internet communications.

Qwest Minnesota, the official provider of telecommunications for the GOP Committee on Arrangements and the local host committee, met the challenge head on. Qwest provided communications infrastructure and service for the convention, including:

• 230 miles of copper wire and coaxial cable

• 12 miles of fiber optic cable

• 50 million bits-per-second download speeds. A high definition movie could have been downloaded in two seconds. Put another way, 514 million mp3s could have been downloaded over the four days of the convention.

• Using the entire convention network, the Library of Congress, which comprises an estimated 20 terabytes of data, could have been transmitted in less than one hour.

Twin Cities Business caught up with John Stanoch, president of Qwest Minnesota, to ask him what it took to keep the Republican National Convention secure and connected.

Twin Cities Business: How did Qwest win the business of the Republican National Convention?

John Stanoch: We very early on said that we would like to be the official communications provider to whichever convention the Twin Cities would get. And if we were given that designation as the official communications provider, we would pledge up to $6 million in a combination of cash and services to help support the convention. So we were kind of in at the ground floor with that local host committee that was trying to attract one of the conventions.