During the Super Bowl on February 5, there is going to whole lot of Tweeting, downloading, texting, talking and dowloading going on. Verizon, AT&T and Sprint are ready for the onslaught of fans using their cell phones, smartphones and other devices. They are also helping with tablets and apps.
AT&T reported that wireless communications inside Lucas Oil Stadium will increase five-fold. Samsung and AT&T donated over 200 tablets (Samsing Galaxy Tabs) loaded with apps to help volunteer guides advise visitors of locations, events and lines.
The Verizon Wireless’s NFL Mobile app allows customers to watch the game. NBC will stream the game which can be seen with Silverlight compatible devices.
Verizon made many improvements in Lucas Oil Stadium for the Super Bowl:
- Three Cell on Wheels (COW) portable cell towers to handle the high deman.
- Nine Antennas in the Distributed Antenna System (DAS) outside the stadium to handle increased downtown traffic.
- 400 Antenna Internal DAS to handle 3G and 4G LTE voice and data inside the stadium.
- 600 Antenna WiFi system capable of handling 28,000 simultaneous connected users. Free for Super Bowl 46.
Sprint has also beefed up coverage with COWs and cell sites:
- Activated two COWs (Cells on Wheels) outside Lucas Oil Stadium.
- Activated two COWs to Super Bowl Village.
- Activated one COW at the University of Indianapolis NFC practice facility.
- Added capacity to 21 CDMA sites and seven iDEN sites around downtown and surrounding area hotels, including a major capacity upgrade inside the stadium.
For land communications to accommodate the demands, a team of 250 Verzion employees employees worked for over six months for Super Bowl XXXV. Workers installed more than 1,600 voice lines, 50 high-speed Integrated services digital network (ISDN) lines and 36 video feeds, capable of transporting huge amounts of digital data and video images.