Sprint Super Bowl Coverage/DAS

[mikejeep]

Sprint appears to be surging ahead with the big gameday crowds on Tutela..

[RedSpark]

1 minute ago, mikejeep said:

Sprint appears to be surging ahead with the big gameday crowds on Tutela..

Sure seems like it...

Sprint’s 5G looks like the big winner this year. Curious what the final reports will show.

[Brad The Beast]

17 minutes ago, mikejeep said:

Sprint appears to be surging ahead with the big gameday crowds on Tutela..

AT&T is diving. Their Excellent Consistent Quality score has plummeted to zero as well. They must be really garbage there. 

[Brad The Beast]

Graph has updated. Sprint is in last again. These graphs are garbage. What is it based on?? You refresh it and it changes to something else. Median download speeds hardly ever update. 

[ZERO_COOL]

1 minute ago, Brad The Beast said:

Graph has updated. Sprint is in last again. These graphs are garbage. What is it based on?? You refresh it and it changes to something else. Median download speeds hardly ever update. 

I agree. 

[Brad The Beast]

I've been refreshing it frequently and it keeps changing between two graphs. I love how the hourly data is from yesterday. 

[iansltx]

Not that I'll be near the Dolphins stadium, but I'll be in Miami (at/near the airport) Wednesday night. Will be interesting to see how the LTE network performs once the town is back to normal, which it should be by then.

[Brad The Beast]

Ookla has published their report. Sprint came in third for overall speed, second for LTE speed. https://www.speedtest.net/insights/blog/football-stadium-speed-2020/

TLDR:

Verizon wins overall thanks to excellent 5G speeds (297.18Mbps average overall). It did however come in last for LTE speed (30.67Mbps average LTE speed).

T-Mobile comes in second for overall download speed (121.93Mbps average overall). First for LTE speed (66.35Mbps average LTE speed).

Sprint was in third for overall speed (114.93Mbps average overall). Second for LTE speed behind T-Mobile (56.16Mbps average LTE speed).

AT&T came in last again for overall speed (103.68Mbps average overall). Third in LTE speed (39.18Mbps average LTE speed).

5G Specific data:

Verizon had the fastest 5G thanks to their mmWave. They had an average 5G download speed of 646.17Mbps. They had the slowest average 5G uploads at 9.86Mbps. Verizon had the worst average 5G latency at 91ms.

T-Mobile came in second for 5G speed thanks to the mmWave they also rolled out. Their average 5G download speed was 348.33Mbps. They had the fastest 5G upload speed at 28.89Mbps. Their average 5G latency was 32ms.

Sprint came in third for 5G speed. Their average 5G download speed was 225.78Mbps. Their average 5G upload speed was 15.39Mbps. Their average 5G latency was 15ms, the best of the three reported.

AT&T didn't make the 5G cut. According to Ookla there were less than 10 AT&T 5G tests. As a result they didn't make it in.

[RAvirani]

26 minutes ago, Brad The Beast said:

Sprint came in third for 5G speed. Their average 5G download speed was 225.78Mbps.

This is surprisingly slow. Not sure why that would be. I don't believe the NR airlink would have been saturated...

[RedSpark]

12 minutes ago, RAvirani said:

This is surprisingly slow. Not sure why that would be. I don't believe the NR airlink would have been saturated...

• Sprint is using a “split mode” for LTE and 5G in Hard Rock Stadium with an 1,800+ antenna DAS to handle LTE while 5G will be transmitted over Massive MIMO. Sprint also used Massive MIMO to add 5G in select locations around the city to the infrastructure improvements they’ve been working on in Miami.

From the Sprint Newsroom Site:

At the Miami stadium where Sprint’s hometown Kansas City team and San Francisco will face off, we’ll provide even more Sprint customers with improved capacity and faster speeds on Game Day (as well as future games, events and concerts). Based on the huge increase in customers’ data usage last year and in 2018, we’re using two different technologies this year to help meet fans’ demands to stream, download, video chat, text and connect on social.

• In and around the stadium, Sprint’s Massive MIMO radios using our fast 2.5 GHz spectrum and breakthrough “split-mode” feature will enable us to simultaneously deliver our most-advanced LTE service and Sprint 5G for customers attending the showdown in person.
• In addition, we will be providing 4G/5G dual connectivity within the stadium, transmitting 4G over a state-of-the-art distributed antenna system (DAS) with more than 1,800 antennas and 5G through Massive MIMO radios.

Together, these solutions will provide the equivalent of 10 macro cell towers at the stadium. That will give fans the coverage and capacity they need whether they’re in their seats, at the concession stand or tailgating in the parking lot.

.........

Was the backhaul saturated? Not enough Massive MIMO radios?

Edited February 3, 2020 by RedSpark
Updated

[JonnygATL]

I mean it sounds pretty good to me for non mm wave 5G

[RedSpark]

Nice work!

[Brad The Beast]

4 hours ago, RAvirani said:

This is surprisingly slow. Not sure why that would be. I don't believe the NR airlink would have been saturated...

Skimpy backhaul probably. 

[Flompholph]

Have we reached peak data? ATT data usage went down from 11.5 TB to 10.2 TB in stadium and 23.5TB to 14.5TB 2 mile radius. The last couple years it has doubled should be interesting to see the others.

 https://about.att.com/innovationblog/2020/01/data_network_football_game_2020.html

 

[mikejeep]

1 hour ago, Flompholph said:

Have we reached peak data? ATT data usage went down from 11.5 TB to 10.2 TB in stadium and 23.5TB to 14.5TB 2 mile radius. The last couple years it has doubled should be interesting to see the others.

 https://about.att.com/innovationblog/2020/01/data_network_football_game_2020.html

I don't think you can read too much into it without lots of other variables filled in. How many AT&T devices were at the stadium (and within 2 miles) this year compared to last year? Also, Hard Rock Stadium is kind of in the middle of nowhere, at least population / destination wise.. especially compared to last year, in Downtown Atlanta.

[RedSpark]

Nice performance!

[Flompholph]

https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-customers-record-amounts-data-super-bowl

Verizon's numbers are out also with 21.5 TB in and around the stadium. 

This is the first time in 5 years data has not grown massively. Sprint for example 2015 754GB ,2016 1.6TB, 2017 5TB, 2018 9.7TB, 2019  25TB, and now 2020 7TB.

[RedSpark]

9 hours ago, Flompholph said:

https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-customers-record-amounts-data-super-bowl

Verizon's numbers are out also with 21.5 TB in and around the stadium. 

This is the first time in 5 years data has not grown massively. Sprint for example 2015 754GB ,2016 1.6TB, 2017 5TB, 2018 9.7TB, 2019  25TB, and now 2020 7TB.

That is interesting.

Unless I’m missing it, T-Mobile only released this information: 

 

 

[RedSpark]

Nice photos!

[JonnygATL]

11 hours ago, RedSpark said:

That is interesting.

Unless I’m missing it, T-Mobile only released this information: 

 

 

I mean Sprint really did quite well. Very well.  But the importance of that extremely quick 5G ping time (latency) can NOT be overstated!  Nice! 

[RedSpark]

Wow.

For comparison....

Here's what Verizon is doing: https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-elevates-super-bowl-lv

Here's what AT&T is doing-in-part (more information is referenced in an earlier link): https://www.fiercewireless.com/operators/at-t-s-mmwave-5g-takes-off-at-tampa-airport

[RedSpark]

Some pretty solid upgrades here!

Summarized:

• $100+ million investment in 5G infrastructure across the city. More than 95% of people in Greater Los Angeles are now covered with T-Mobile’s super-fast Ultra Capacity 5G network.
• At SoFi Stadium, T-Mobile deployed a brand new state-of-the-art 5G system with upgraded 100 Gigabit backhaul and the deployment of Ultra Capacity 5G service using mid-band and millimeter wave spectrum. Gives SoFi the capability equal to nearly 100 traditional macro cell sites. T-Mobile customers could experience peak download speeds of 1.5 Gbps.
• Across the city, indoor systems have been upgraded at more than a dozen venues, including Los Angeles Convention Center, Crypto.com Arena and LA’s most popular and largest hotels. At LAX, T-Mobile now provides 5G service at Tom Bradley International Terminal and Mid-Field Satellite Concourse.
• Hundreds of macro sites have been upgraded and nearly 200 small cells across the city have been installed or upgraded with Ultra Capacity 5G increasing the density and capacity of the network and providing peak speeds up to 1 Gbps.

Here's what AT&T is doing:

And Verizon:

More info: https://www.verizon.com/about/news/speed-january-31-2022

 

Nice overall analysis here: https://www.lightreading.com/5g/verizon-atandt-and-t-mobile-again-rally-around-5g-for-super-bowl/d/d-id/775159

Edited February 8, 2022 by RedSpark
Added AT&T/Verizon

[BucketHead25]

Am I the only one tired of these super bowl stories?  This event is for the elites who can afford to spend $5000 for a ticket to a 3 hr show.   

[mikejeep]

51 minutes ago, BucketHead25 said:

Am I the only one tired of these super bowl stories?  This event is for the elites who can afford to spend $5000 for a ticket to a 3 hr show.   

This thread is specifically about Super Bowl mobile coverage. From a tech standpoint, it's pretty cool to see what can be accomplished. I would suggest skipping over it in the future if you're not interested. 

[RedSpark]

5 hours ago, BucketHead25 said:

Am I the only one tired of these super bowl stories?  This event is for the elites who can afford to spend $5000 for a ticket to a 3 hr show.   

Nothing in this thread (running for seven years now!) has anything to do with the cost of tickets or "elites". It's purely focused on the network/upgrades that each carrier deploys in the Host City for the Game.

Each carrier is deploying the best network that it can for a high profile/huge capacity event, and it's neat to see their talking points about what makes their network the best vs. the others. The really cool thing is that many of these upgrades are permanent. So as time has gone on with the Game being hosted in different cities, these Host City networks have substantially improved as technology advances.