U.S. wireless carriers are taking no chances when it comes to serving fans at the Big Game.
Among those sending out reinforcements is Verizon, which seems to be aiming to absolutely blanket the San Francisco Bay Area with coverage and capacity.
Over the past two years, Verizon said it has spent nearly $70 million on preparations for Super Bowl 50, including the building of 16 new area cell sites, installation of 75 new small cells, and deployment of a new antenna system that will extend into the stadium’s lower seats.
Verizon said it also plans to deploy 14 mobile cell sites in high traffic locations and will have a team of 100 technicians and engineers to monitor the network during the weekend’s events.
In Santa Clara alone, Verizon said it added six new cell sites and 29 small cells, and will activate seven Cells on Wheels (COWs) mobile cell sites to better serve the stadium and surrounding event locations.
The carrier said it also added 10 macro cell sites and 46 small cells, as well as seven COWs, throughout downtown San Francisco. Capacity has also been added along the area’s major commuter systems, the VTA, Caltrain and BART, Verizon said.
Though a recent RootMetrics study found Verizon offered the best overall data performance across all 31 NFL stadiums in the country and the strongest carrier performance at Levi’s stadium, the company’s efforts aren’t for nothing.
According the Verizon figures, fans of the two teams that will be competing in the Super Bowl, the Denver Broncos and the Carolina Panthers, used a combined 2.47 terabytes of wireless data during the teams’ respective championship games this past weekend.
More specifically, Denver fans at Sports Authority Field at Mile High gobbled up 1.17 TB of data on the carrier’s LTE network. Panthers fans at Bank of America Stadium topped even that number, however, racking up 1.3 TB of data usage on the Verizon network.
At last year’s Super Bowl, Verizon said its customers in Phoenix burned through 4.1 TB of data, a figure the carrier said it expects will grow.
“We do this because we anticipate that this will be the most ‘shared’ Super Bowl,” said Verizon Wireless’ network vice president Brian Mecum. “A better wireless network matters when it comes to capturing and sharing life’s greatest moments.”
But Verizon isn’t alone in its Big Game prep.
AT&T
AT&T said it has been working for the past year to improve coverage in the Bay Area through a series of permanent and temporary upgrades, including the installation of 39 new or enhanced cell sites.
“Many of the network enhancements deployed in the Bay Area for the Big Game are permanent and will continue to benefit customers after,” said AT&T Northern California vice president Jeni Bell. “It’s just one way we’re continuing to invest in our Northern California wireless network.”
The carrier said it has upgraded its Distributed Antenna System (DAS) to provide 150% more LTE capacity at the stadium and has upgraded or installed new DAS at 26 locations in the Bay region. AT&T said it has also deployed nine COWs to help handle traffic outside the stadium, including two SuperCOWs to cover the velebration at the Justin Herman Plaze and one COW at Treasure Island for the Friday night pre-game party.
More than $25 million has been spent on the improvements, the carrier said.
Sprint
Over the past nine months, Sprint said it has increased the coverage and capacity of its DAS by 45 percent inside Levi’s Stadium and has upgraded its 800 MHz and 1.9 GHz system to include 2.5 GHz using two-channel carrier aggregation. The carrier has also expanded its DAS coverage and capacity by a third at the Moscone Center, which will serve as the home of this year’s NFL Experience.
Sprint said it has also brought 11 Cell Sites On Wheels (COWs) to various Super Bowl event locations, and have added a DAS at both the San Francisco and Oakland Airports. A temporary cell site has been added at San Jose Airport, the cattier said.
T-Mobile
The Un-carrier is not going to be caught unprepared either.
T-Mobile said it has added extra capacity on 150 cell sites that serve the 32 venues hosting Super Bowl events, as well as on sites at the three major airports in the area. The carrier said it has also upgraded its DAS at Levi’s Stadium and installed temporary COWs and rooftop sites to give select locations – like the Justin Herman Plaza, the Moscone Center and area around Levi’s Stadium – a boost.
Filed Under: Carriers
