News

Singapore, 18 February 2008 - Reflecting a shared objective of improving the lives of people in remote and rural areas around the world, RacingThePlanet: Vietnam will showcase Intel’s commitment to bridging the digital divide.

RacingThePlanet: Vietnam – a six-day, 250 kilometer footrace across remote northwest Vietnam – begins today. Competitors from your nation are participating in this event. They are available before and during the race to share their real-world experience of this amazing race. Intel executives also are available to comment on the challenges of bridging the digital divide in Asia today.

The race includes over 100 competitors from over 22 nations , including four competitors from Singapore. A team from the Black H'mong tribe in Vietnam is also competing in RacingThePlanet the first time. An international staff of 30 and a local staff of 50 will also be on hand to support the competitors. RacingThePlanet competitors and organizers will make use of the high-speed wireless broadband technology to upload rich media content to the RacingThePlanet website throughout the event including videos, blogs, photographs, real-time scoring and GPS mapping, displaying the cultural richness and diversity of Vietnam to a global audience.

Here’s some information on Singapore’s competitors:

o Jason R. Spivey, 32, Australia, resident in Singapore
Jason is Managing Director of Tristate Investigations Pty Ltd. He was previously a Sniper in the Queensland Police Service and Private Security Contractor in Iraq. He enjoys all types of sports that push the body and mind to the extremes.

o Leighton Phillips, 36, Australia, resident in Singapore
Leighton is the World Ahead Program manager for Asia Pacific and leads Intel’s efforts on solving the digital divide in the region. He has completed half marathons, a full marathon and half-ironman triathlons.

o Andrew Atkinson, 55, United Kingdom, resident in Singapore
Andrew is the General Manager for Oceaneering. This will be his first RacingThePlanet event.

o Tilden Wu, 28, United States, resident in Singapore
Tilden is the Education Policy and Program Manager for Intel Corporation. He will be running for the Vietnam WiMAX pilot.

As part of World Ahead, Intel’s five-year, billion dollar commitment to bridging the digital divide, Intel, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Vietnam Data Communication Company (VDC) deployed high-speed wireless broadband in the remote Sapa region of northwest Vietnam. Since deployment last year, the project has connected villagers to 21st century opportunity, including communications and digital content and services. The technology also has the potential to make an impact in the areas of education and healthcare.

“The expansion of Internet access and the free flow of information are integral to a nation’s economic and social growth,” said Leighton Phillips, Intel World Ahead Program manager for Asia Pacific. “By working with RacingThePlanet to take its message to a global audience, we can also draw focus to Intel’s success in connecting rural Vietnamese to digital opportunities and the readiness to deploy this technology into remote areas within Vietnam and beyond.”

To receive daily updates during the race, visit http://4deserts.com/beyond/vietnam/intel/. An RSS feed is also available here: http://4deserts.com/beyond/vietnam/intel/rss2.php