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iPhones should work well at the Super Bowl

by Mel Martin Feb 1st 2009 at 2:45PM

If you're going to be at Super Bowl XLIII today, your iPhone may actually work. Several companies have brought in massive amounts of equipment to handle what will certainly be an extraordinary increase of cellular and data traffic.

ADC, a cable and wireless technology provider, has brought in a special system they have deployed at Raymond James Stadium. The equipment will provide coverage throughout the stadium, including the inner bowl, all seating levels, luxury boxes, offices and locker rooms, and the stadium parking area.

The firm expects the system to handle between 10,000 to 15,000 simultaneous calls. Meanwhile, our friends at AT&T have added to the two cell sites that are already in the stadium. They have also beefed up coverage at the Tampa International Airport, downtown hotels, at the University of South Florida Sun Dome and team practice fields.

AT&T is also increasing the capacity of the 2G network by 400% and the 3G network by 335%.The company has also brought in two additional mobile cells on wheels that will cover the stadium parking lots.

I would expect there will be a lot of texting, calling, and pictures sent from the iPhones in the stands. It will be interesting to see how well the system actually holds up.

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If you're going to be at Super Bowl XLIII today, your iPhone may actually work. Several companies have brought in massive amounts of...
 

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tpfilm

This where the extra $10/month/3G iPhone data fee is going. Instead of actually rolling out 3G nationwide - Wilmington, NC does not have 3G but the smaller towns of Fayetville and Jacksonville do. Might have something to do with Fort Bragg and Camp LeJeune but still... Wilmington is the largest market area on the coast of NC. Both bases are an average of 1 hour away. AT&T can't bring 3G a little closer to the Atlantic?

February 02 2009 at 10:20 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
JoeAD

What about GPS - will this still work despite a dense concentration of GPS enabled devices?

February 02 2009 at 4:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to JoeAD's comment
SpinThis!

Yeh—because GPS is only a receiver; it doesn't need to transmit anything.

February 02 2009 at 11:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ben

They better do something I go to the Bucs game at Rayjay all the time and have given up using my iPhone there for data for anything.

February 01 2009 at 10:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
michael

My friend's Samsung BlackJack II is working fine at the Super Bowl too - I don't see anyone creating a post for that...

February 01 2009 at 9:43 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Stephen

I hope they does better than they did at this year's AT&T Cotton Bowl. I was at the game, and my 1st gen. iPhone couldn't get a signal for the entire game. As soon as I left the stadium - full strength.

You would think that the major sponsor of an event would make sure that their network could handle the load, but apparently not.

February 01 2009 at 5:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Seth Amott

Ahh, maybe that explains why I don't have 3G data here in Kansas. They "Borrowed" my tower.

February 01 2009 at 5:07 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Erick

IM A COCK-SUCKING HOE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

February 01 2009 at 4:58 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
L3

SuperBowl XLIII will seat 72500 at capacity.

February 01 2009 at 3:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike

Why are they doing this again? Some type of publicity stunt?

The Super Bowl this year hasn't sold out (2 days ago 100K of 150K seats were sold according to NBC) and even if it did, does an increase of 150-200K people in a city warrant a huge infrastructure increase? Even still, are the normal games at the stadium generating a 300% increase in traffic? If not, why would the Super Bowl?

February 01 2009 at 3:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Mike's comment
Mr. Brown

Mike - there isn't even a stadium in the United States that holds 150K; few hold 100K (Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio State), none of which are NFL stadiums.

In fact, you would have to go to Kim Jong Il's North Korea to get a stadium that would hold 150,000 people.

February 01 2009 at 4:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike

Mr. Brown,

Thanks for the correction. However, I blame Brian Williams.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#28940062

~"only 100K are expected to attend compared to the normal 150K"

I assumed that meant attending.

February 01 2009 at 4:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
bbwilliams

Hopefully iPhones on AT&T will hold up better at the Superbowl than they did at the Inauguration. Nearly the whole day during the concert and the next day during the Inauguration, there was "No Service" or "Searching..." if you left the phone in 3G mode. If you manually switched to 2G, you were generally able to get a signal enough for texts (delayed by 2-3 hours) and voice calls (that always went to the recipient's voicemail if they got through at all). For awhile I had the "E" for edge but couldn't get any data -- eventually the E just disappeared.

February 01 2009 at 3:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to bbwilliams's comment
Miller

Also had pathetic service at Lollapalooza this year. The joke was if you stood anywhere near the AT&T Stage you could not get/make a call. This is downtown Chicago! AT&T has history of screwing this stuff up.

February 01 2009 at 4:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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