SailGP partners with T-Mobile for fast data transmission

NEW YORK (AP) — The SailGP global league and T-Mobile have announced a partnership to use 5G technology to enhance broadcast coverage of racing at regattas sailed in American ports.

SailGP, which was founded by tech tycoon Larry Ellison, first used T-Mobile’s 5G technology at the Season 2 finale in San Francisco in late March and officially announced the deal Monday. The partnership will include the United States Sail Grand Prix at Chicago’s Navy Pier on June 18-19, which will be the second regatta of Season 3, and again in San Francisco at the end of the season in May 2023.

T-Mobile and SailGP will develop 5G technology applications designed to speed up data transmission off the 50-foot foiling catamarans to the Oracle Cloud and then to the broadcast center in London and back to team bases for various uses. T-Mobile will also be a sponsor of the United States SailGP Team led by two-time America’s Cup winner Jimmy Spithill.

Each of the nine catamarans has 30,000 sensors aboard, which generate 40 billion data requests to the Oracle Cloud each day of racing.

Warren Jones, SailGP’s chief technical officer, likened the catamarans to extreme internet of things devices.

“We’re a data-driven organization. We need data to progress,” Jones said. “Everything we do is wireless. The boats are extreme IoT devices on the water. They generate huge amounts of information. You put a boat on the water, it goes sailing, it starts creating data.”