MTN sponsors land speed record attempt

MTN has signed a memorandum of understanding with Bloodhound SSC to sponsor a project to create a car capable of travelling at 1 000 miles (1 600km) per hour.

According to Bloodhound project director Richard Noble, the Bloodhound Super Sonic Car will be put to the test next year, in Hakskeen Pan, north of Upington.

Bloodhound says the world land speed record of 763mph is held by Thrust SSC, a UK team lead by Noble and driven by Andy Green.

Speaking at the signing, Kanagaratnam Lambotharan, CTO at MTN SA, said that, as a technology company, the partnership with Bloodhound was natural. “The project will enable MTN to showcase its world-class network infrastructure and skilled manpower, which will support Bloodhound SSC to realise this fantastic milestone.”

According to the company, it will provide voice and data connectivity for the Bloodhound crew and enable the downloading of on-car data and HD streaming video, which will be uploaded on the Internet in real-time.

Lambotharan said MTN plans to build additional towers in Hakskeen and also provide HSPA and LTE in Upington, which is currently on 3G and HSDPA networks.

Lambotharan added that it would be interesting to see at what speed connectivity is lost.

According to Noble, the project hopes to inspire schoolchildren to follow careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Noble explained that in order to encourage education, the project needed to be live so that schoolchildren could follow it online. According to Bloodhound, schools are able to access free, curriculum-ready Bloodhound information and lesson material online once they have registered with the project.

Noble said there are currently 5 059 UK schools registered with the Bloodhound SSC Education Programme, and roughly 160 local schools. Noble added that Bloodhound hopes to expand this number by appointing additional local project ambassadors.