As you watch the Winter Olympics from Sochi, you may be surprised by the palm trees in the background. Take a closer look.
While Sochi’s subtropical climate can support palms year-round, not all of the trees are real. Some of the palm trees are actually wireless base stations in disguise.
MegaFon, the second-biggest mobile carrier in Russia, camouflaged the equipment as trees and park benches to avoid littering the city with unsightly hardware.
Carriers had to ramp up the infrastructure in Sochi to handle the influx of people watching replays and posting photos.
MegaFon calls this the “world’s first-ever data Olympics.” The company spent about $300 million to roll out a modern mobile network, which should enable downloads that are 10 times faster than Russia’s average.