TeleNav is the software vendor powering AT&T’s Navigator Global Edition announced earlier this week, and as you might have guessed, one of the big motivators for getting it up and running was 8/8/08, the start of the Summer Olympics in China.

The service can be used in 20 countries on AT&T-powered smartphones with built-in GPS. That includes most countries in western Europe, North America and the U.S. Caribbean, as well as six cities in China that will host Beijing Summer Olympics events.

China, like some other countries, required the service to be hosted in the local market, according to Bob Rennard, co-founder and chief technical officer at TeleNav.

TeleNav started working in China several years ago and established a presence there, navigating the roads to do business in China. It has a couple hundred employees based in China now.

TeleNav also works with local entities around the world to make sure the languages it supports are local versions of English, Spanish, Portuguese and others.

So, will Rennard be traveling to China to make sure the service runs smoothly during the Olympics? Nope, he’s got enough on his hands elsewhere. “Trust me, we have enough people on the ground,” he said.