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Looking to help with the anticipated increase in network traffic at the big bowl game in Miami on January 4, AT&T (News - Alert) has rolled in two Cell sites on Wheels, or COWs, in the stadium parking lot.

Among hundreds of preparations AT&T has made in South Florida in 2011, the network upgrades are well in preparation for the big game. Since the start of the year through Nov. 30, AT&T has completed 657 network enhancements in Miami-Dade and Broward counties alone to increase mobile broadband coverage, capacity and speeds.

AT&T launched “Focus: Miami-Fort Lauderdale” last summer to give customers a hyper-local view of the upgrades. Prompted to select the city or county they’re most interested in, Visitors to the site immediately view a map of the Miami - Fort Lauderdale area.

“We know college football fans are excited about this bowl, and we want our customers to have a positive wireless experience,” said Carlos Blanco, vice president and general manager of AT&T Mobility & Consumer Markets for South Florida in a company press release . “These mobile cell sites, and the other network enhancements we’ve made at the stadium, will help us accomplish that.”

AT&T has a distributed antenna system inside the stadium that has been bolstered with additional mobile broadband capacity in addition to the two mobile cell sites in the stadium parking lot. The network upgrade involved adding additional layers of frequency, also known as “carriers,” to the sites.

Helping to improve the performance of mobile broadband data and voice connectivity, the extra capacity makes it possible for the distributed antenna system to accommodate more traffic.

In June 2011, the company launched the AT&T Mobile Barcode Services to enable consumers and businesses to create, publish and manage1D and 2D Mobile barcodes.

Success achieved in previous trials has made AT&T believe that mobile barcodes directed at smartphones are an effective way to market brands by capturing the attention of consumers and providing them with information about promotions, coupons, discounted sales and much more.