AT&T Gearing up South Florida Wireless Network for Pro Bowl and Super Bowl
January 20, 2010
(SPORTS TECHNOLOGY)
AT&T is reportedly gearing up its South Florida network to ensure those in town for the Jan. 31 Pro Bowl and Feb. 7 Super Bowl XLIV have a winning wireless experience.
AT&T (News - Alert) is also expanding capacity and coverage in and around Dolphin Stadium and other important areas to prepare for increased voice and data traffic on its wireless network.
AT&T network personnel will be on site during the games to monitor the network. During the games, traffic on the stadium cell sites will be balanced in order to maximize the ability for customers to make calls and use data services.
According to Rich Guidotti, vice president and general manager of AT&T Mobility & Consumer Markets for South Florida, the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl are two of the biggest games of the year. Hence fans attending these games would want to be able to share the experience in real time with those back home, whether it’s through a voice call, text message, e-mail or picture and video messaging.
AT&T’s network preparations for the games consist of three mobile cell sites on wheels, or COW, in the stadium parking lot; a new distributed antenna system inside the stadium; additional capacity to cell sites in the vicinity of the stadium; additional capacity to cell sites serving hotels and resorts in Fort Lauderdale and South Beach where Super Bowl activities will be hosted; a COW to serve Fort Lauderdale hotels where teams will be staying; additional capacity to cell sites surrounding the facilities where the teams will be practicing; and the addition of backhaul connectivity to cell sites surrounding the stadium to increase voice and data capacity between the sites and the routing switch.
A fourth additional layer of capacity has also been added to the AT&T cell site inside the stadium, with 2G voice and data capacity increased by 100 percent and high-speed 3G voice and data capacity increased by 280 percent.
AT&T also increased capacity on its 3G network throughout South Florida in 2009 with the addition of a third layer of capacity to several cell sites from Key West to Vero Beach.
In addition, AT&T activated 20 new cell sites, added 3G technology to a number of existing cell sites, upgraded its UMTS/3G switching center, added 7 new Radio Network Controllers to significantly increase capacity and also added more than 2,500 backhaul connections in 2009.
In fact, from 2007 through the third quarter of 2009, AT&T has invested more than $134 million in its wireless network in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties alone. AT&T's 3G network is now available in more than 350 cities in the United States.
To find out more about AT&T, visit the company at the 4GWE Conference. To be held Jan. 20 to 22 in Miami and collocated with ITEXPO East 2010, the 4GWE Conference will focus on the realities of deploying 4G technologies and delivering broadband wireless applications to a growing community of wireless broadband consumers. Hank Hultquist, VP Federal Regulatory Affairs, AT&T, is speaking during “Net Neutrality: Can Open Be Governed?” Don’t wait. Register now.
Calvin Azuri is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Calvin’s articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Marisa Torrieri
