The Overtel Corporation is a datacast company featured in the background lore of the Wipeout series.
A corrupt, ruthless and unscrupulous conglomerate, Overtel sought to take control of the sport of anti-gravity racing for purely commercial ends. Overtel was the parent company of Qirex Industries from the 2050s to the 2130s, which saw its role in the latter's dominance in AG racing during this period.
Overtel eventually succeeded in seizing control of the AG Race Commission in the early 2130s, through which the company orchestrated the AG racing series' upgrade to the F9000 specification in 2156. The company collapsed following the exposure of its illegal activities.
Ownership of Qirex[]
During the 2050s, Qirex Industries was sold to Overtel. The latter had failed to gain control over the sport during its inaugural years, but it was perceived that Overtel's acquisition of Qirex was the closest thing to it. As a result of the deal, Qirex had the funding they needed to become highly successful in the early years of AG racing, leading to a record number of championships for the team in the years to follow.
Once Overtel took over the F7200 Commission in 2132, the Qirex team was restructured to be self-sufficient. The team would remain stable after the split, but a series of poor performances, along with the downturn of the Russian industrial sector during the late 2140s, led Qirex to be absorbed into Tigron Enterprises, a conglomerate owned by a crime syndicate that had overthrown the Russian government.
F9000 Federation[]
- Main article: Wipeout Fusion
In 2127, when Pierre Belmondo passed away, Overtel increased its interest in gaining control of the AG Race Commission (and by extension, AG racing itself), and it would finally succeed by 2132. Afterwards, Overtel would implement various changes to make the sport "better in the eyes of the audience". This included the upgrade in specification to the F9000, which introduced more extravagant racetracks, more technologically-advanced craft capable of exceeding the speed of sound, an emphasis on vehicular combat over traditional racing prowess, and worldwide media exposure.
To quite some fans however, particularly the Anti-Gravity Purity Coalition, these changes had drastically distorted the sport from its very roots, but Overtel brushed it off and continued to run the sport in its own extravagant ways. It was also said that Overtel had been involved in a massive race-fixing conspiracy, namely that one of the competing teams of the league, Tigron Enterprises, had blackmailed the datacast company using the latter's incriminating documents, thus allowing the Tigron team to actively flout the rules.
Apart from a lack of transparency on the F9000 AG Race Commission's part and the countless cases of race-fixing and rule-bending, the most notorious incident in the F9000 era came in 2164 during a race in Temtesh Bay. The incident occurred on the first lap on the venue's medium course as a result of the use of FEISAR's "Super Missiles", whose explosive power was such that it caused enough destruction for the track's underground mining area to collapse, leaving several pilots buried alive for several days and some others engulfed by the flaming wreckage. Six pilots were killed in the incident, and three of the surviving pilots announced their withdrawal from the F9000 thereafter. This likely started the descent of the F9000, with public opinion rapidly turning on the Commission and, by extension, Overtel.
Fall of the F9000[]
- Main article: The Fall of the F9000
In October 2170, the Anti-Gravity Purity Coalition published confidential documents detailing corruption, deception, illegal business practices, and criminal conspiracies perpetrated by Overtel, stretching back to the days of the datacast company's ownership of Qirex. The F9000, which was in its penultimate race of the season at the time, was suspended pending further investigation.
As the investigations were in progress, many Overtel board members chose to avoid criminal charges, mostly by committing suicide. The remainder of them still alive would soon be arrested during a police raid on Overtel's corporate headquarters in New York City. What followed shortly afterwards was a chaotic social and economic spiral which lasted for most of the decade, along with the dissolution of Tigron and G-Tech Systems. As for AG racing itself, it had lost its reputation as a legitimate form of sport.
This thus marked the end of Overtel.
Trivia[]
- Among the many changes made to AG racing by Overtel for the transition to the F9000 League include the vast expansion of weaponry and the re-introduction of team-specific super weapons, extra-terrestrial tracks and, possibly, the previously banned Mag-Strip technology.
- Overtel could be compared to the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the sanctioning body of the Formula One world championship series, in particular its now-defunct subcommittee, the Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA), who also commissioned said racing series from 1978 to 1993. Overtel could also be compared to Liberty Media, the majority owner of Formula One since 2017, to a slightly lesser extent.
- The accusations of race-fixing against Overtel, and the fact that Tigron have been using them to manipulate the rules in their favor during most of the F9000 era, is likely a reference to the public's generally negative perception of the FIA due to history of race-fixing allegations, e.g. the 1982 Brazilian Grand Prix; arbitrary regulations, e.g. 2010 season budget cap proposals; and perceived favoritism towards one particular team, e.g. Mercedes-AMG in the 2010's and Red Bull Racing in the more recent years.
- The Anti-Gravity Purity Coalition may be a reference to the numerous collectives that are/were in conflict with the FIA to varying extents and engage(d) in advocacy for the safety and purity of the sport, namely:
- The Formula One Constructors Association (FOCA), a collective of Formula One constructors that was active from 1974 to 1982 and claimed responsibility for the boycott of the 1982 San Marino Grand Prix over the disqualification of Nelson Piquet and Keke Rosberg from the preceding Brazilian Grand Prix
- The Formula One Teams Association (FOTA), a similar collective that was active from 2008 to 2014 and protested the budget cap proposal for the 2010 F1 championship season
- The Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA), a collective of Formula One drivers that was active from 1961 to 1982 and later re-founded in 1994
- The Temtesh Bay disaster is likely a reference to the 1955 Le Mans disaster and, to a much lesser extent, the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna in the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix during qualifying and the actual race respectively.
- It is likely that Barratt Liddell, who was the Chief Executive of the F9000 Anti-Gravity Race Commission according to the press releases from Wipeout Fusion, was somehow affiliated with Overtel.