Fast mover keeps rally fans up with the action

By PETER GRIFFIN technology writer

TelstraSaturn's web development arm, Zivo, is giving the public rare glimpses of what Vodafone's fledgling gprs mobile phone network has to offer.

Zivo employee and racing nut James Christopher is using the fast internet access system to post in-car images to the web during the Dunlop Targa New Zealand rally.

The rally kicked off on Monday, and is weaving its way across the central North Island.

Team Zivo is in the "tour" section of the rally, allowing Mr Christopher to complete stages at a more pedestrian pace - up to 200 km/h.

Mounted on the body of his banana-coloured Lotus Esprit is a web camera connected to a laptop, which in turn will be linked to a Motorola Timeport gprs phone.

All going well, racing enthusiasts should be able to view updated images from the Lotus every 15 seconds during the race.

"We don't know what it will be like in the central North Island, but we're hoping to tweak that time down," Mr Christopher said.

More race photos are being taken from the sidelines and posted to the web using the gprs network.

Vodafone's 2.5G gprs network has been in place for some time, but a shortage of gprs handsets means few customers have had the opportunity to upgrade.

Mr Christopher said the images were kept small - around 20kb - to allow faster transmission and more frequent updates.

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Dunlop Targa