Verizon spends $69 million on Indy network upgrades. To avoid LTE crash at Superbowl?

[pyroscott]

Migrated from Original Forum. Originally Posted 23 January 2012

 

 

With the LTE outages Verizon has experienced the past year, it makes you wonder how the 85,000 people attending the Superbowl in Indy will impact their LTE network. Verizon may have had that in mind when they decided to spend $69 million upgrading their LTE network in Indianapolis. According to the article

"How Verizon Prepares for the First 4G LTE Super Bowl in Indianapolis" Verizon claims that attendees of the Superbowl will be able to watch the game on their mobile devices. That is an aggressive promise, but how many people will actually watch it on their phone? To assist with the added network load, they have deployed the following:

• 9 Antennas that are part of a 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.
  
• 3 Cell on Wheels (COWs). Stand alone generator powered cell towers to handle the extremely high demand areas.
  

The atricle finishes by saying the only equipment that they will not be leaving in place is the 3 cell on wheels that will be on hand. The Verizon customers in the city of Indianapolis will certainly be benefiting from the Superbowl.

[BenChase7]

Migrated from Original Forum. Originally Posted 23 January 2012

 

Interesting perspective, Thanks Pyroscott. I know Sprint added 2 COWs at the stadium, 2 at the SuperBowl Village, and 1 at the practice facility.. as well as "substantial" capacity upgrades within the stadium. Likely only 3G, but I wonder if their upgrades within the stadium are permanent.

[S4GRU]

Migrated from Original Forum. Originally Posted 23 January 2012

 

I hope Verizon is successful. I would love for a model of how to handle large events to be established for all wireless carriers to employ when necessary. Bring in the COWs. MOOO!!!

[pyroscott]

Migrated from Original Forum. Originally Posted 25 January 2012

 

They should mount the portable cell sites on motorcycles and call them hell on wheels