Every year, as the Super Bowl approaches, all three major tournaments in the United States are held. Carrier announced The latest upgrades ensure stadiums hosting big games have enough high-speed network capacity to accommodate the thousands of fans attending with smartphones in their pockets. But every year, some people complain that they couldn’t post their brags live because everyone was trying to send messages, photos, and videos at the same time.
Just four months after this year’s Super Bowl, the game venue in Santa Clara, Calif., famous for hiding the Levi’s logo, has been renovated to host several Super Bowls. fifa world cup game. The match between Paraguay and Australia on June 25 marked the fifth time in two weeks that the approximately 69,000-seat arena was packed with fans looking to watch the world’s biggest soccer tournament.
The game draws millions of viewers, more than the annual NFL Championship, from those watching at home to the thousands of people from all over the world to watch the game live, who will reach for their phones in unison every time a team sings the national anthem or scores a goal.
It’s not just San Francisco Bay Area stadiums. this world cup Since it’s the first time the games have been held across three countries: Canada, Mexico and the United States, there’s a good chance the host stadium won’t have adequate cell phone service for the tens of thousands of people who attend the games each day.
We looked into what efforts telecommunications carriers have taken to improve their networks. world cup Tests were conducted at 11 host stadiums in the United States to stress test the Bay Area’s network to ensure it could withstand game-day loads.
Test your network at a World Cup match
My eyes were on my beloved Socceroos throughout the match, but I was also focused on how much of the match I could capture on my phone and send to friends and family watching at home. using samsung galaxy s23 plus At Verizon, Motorola Razr Connect to T-Mobile via Mint Mobile, iPhone 17 Pro Max Connected to AT&T’s new Turbo Live product, several of my colleagues at CNET and I ran various network tests during the Paraguay vs. Australia game on June 25th.
There were 68,827 fans at the game, many with multiple devices, and between the three of us we had six cell phones. This means that many people are trying to use the network at the same time.
Send photos and videos
I used my Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus on the Verizon network to send photos and videos to CNET Mobile Editor-in-Chief David Lumb during the game. The photos arrived on my phone within seconds, and the 23-second video took just under a minute to play.
Some of us who were at the match also used RCS messaging and WhatsApp to send each other photos taken together on Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T. Everything was sent and delivered within a minute.
video call
FIFA’s tricky lottery system and subsequent resale market have made World Cup tickets incredibly expensive. This means that even if you can’t make it to the game, there will be plenty of people who will want to video call you during the game. I had several video calls during the match. That included a phone call to Sydney, Australia, just before the game started. One goes to Los Angeles at halftime. One was to Germany while playing. When the game was over, I went to Melbourne, Australia for one more game.
Other than the call in LA (which I attributed to poor cell phone reception in LA traffic, not my side at the stadium), all videos were crystal clear. Hearing a phone over the roar of a crowd was another problem, but the Verizon network held up to video.
AT&T Turbo Live
AT&T’s new turbo live service Sign up for a one-time pass that gives you priority access to our high-speed network during events and concerts. When I signed up for Turbo Live using an iPhone 17 Pro Max, CNET content director Patrick Holland measured download speeds of 1690Mbps and upload speeds of 92.4Mbps.
The lightning-fast download speeds were more than double the maximum speeds I experienced with Verizon’s Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus, which was around 714Mbps. Senior writer Abrar Al Heti said: motorola razr fold Although they were using a Mint Mobile eSIM (an MVNO that uses the T-Mobile network), Ookla said they were using the Frontier network at the time of the speed test.
However, setting up access to Turbo Live was a long, multi-step process that took at least 10 minutes during a match. This includes finding the event on the Turbo Live site to see if service is available, checking your phone to see if you’re eligible, paying a one-time fee ($12 for a game you watched), activating your eSIM, setting your default line, and selecting your eSIM as your primary network in settings. This is a time-consuming process and requires great care, so the main point is to pay in advance and be well prepared. I saw an event listed on the Turbo Live site that was several weeks away.
Post photos and videos to social media
Posting stories to Instagram was a smooth and quick process. Using both the Verizon and T-Mobile networks, the photos uploaded quickly.
Overall, the network held up, and there was enough signal to send photos and video clips to friends and family, as well as post them on social media. Mobile bandwidth also made it possible to make video calls across continents and oceans. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to send dispatches around the world from my seat, even though I was sitting with nearly 69,000 other fans doing the same thing.
I reached out to each carrier to learn how they updated their stadium networks to handle the data fans need to share the World Cup experience around the world.
How carriers improved their networks for the FIFA World Cup
Portable cell phone base station for FIFA World Cup.
verizon
Verizon, the official carrier sponsor of the World Cup, has installed thousands of antennas under seats and added 5G spectrum to increase communication capacity across the United States. world cup It hosted a stadium and installed a giant ball-shaped antenna to provide 4G and 5G coverage even in the nosebleed seats.
Verizon said it expects people to use more than 50 terabytes of data per game at each stadium.
“This is the equivalent of streaming every movie ever made on Netflix in one 90-minute game at the same time,” Abraham Arencibia, Verizon’s vice president of technology and product development, told me. “To handle the surge in wireless network traffic, we increased the capacity of all our host stadiums in the U.S. by three to five times. We also added 80,000 miles of fiber to deliver all camera feeds from every game to FIFA’s international broadcast center.”
Verizon also deployed about 150 small cells and temporary cell sites to boost reception in areas impacted by tens of thousands of fans traveling to the stadium in large numbers or holding nearby viewing parties. The carrier also offers a private 5G network for Lenovo’s referee body cameras.
AT&T
in advance of world cupAT&T also upgraded the network at all 11 U.S. host stadiums and made “more than 2,000 enhancements across surrounding markets.” These upgrades are designed to address increased network demands and are managed through our onsite support team.
At the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, AT&T has increased capacity, expanding not only within the stadium but also the nearby airport, hotels, and downtown area.
“Events like this create a huge demand for connectivity,” Robert Walters, AT&T’s senior vice president of network planning, told me. “We have strengthened our host city network to provide reliable performance for our fans while ensuring first responders have reliable, dedicated priority communications through FirstNet.”
first net — First Responder Network Authority — is a partnership between AT&T and the federal government that provides a network across the United States specifically for first responders and safety agencies. AT&T says that unlike commercial networks, FirstNet will not slow down, even during large-scale events, such as large-scale events. world cup. FirstNet staff will be on the ground for every game, and AT&T will have cell trailers on standby to ensure this.
AT&T also has Turbo Live available in 10 of its 11 U.S. host stadiums, including San Francisco Bay Area stadiums. Turbo Live allows AT&T customers, as well as Verizon and T-Mobile plan customers, to use AT&T’s preferred network for a one-time access fee of $5 to $15. To use a 5G-enabled phone, it must be unlocked by your carrier and have an open eSIM slot.
LEO cell trailers supporting AT&T’s public safety network FirstNet in the Bay Area.
T-Mobile
T-Mobile is talking about expanding network capacity across stadiums, airports, public transportation, fan zones and surrounding areas for the event, but one of the main topics is T-Mobile Dynamic CX, an AI-powered system that adapts and optimizes the network in real-time as demand changes.
“Dynamic CX is an AI-powered feature designed to allow the network to adapt in near real-time as crowds gather and move around event areas, and is used in certain high-traffic locations such as fan events and transportation hubs,” T-Mobile said.
This includes viewing parties and local events around the World Cup that are not held inside the stadium.
T-Mobile told me that Dynamix CX has worked well so far, helping manage network demand during the first two games in Seattle, with over 630,000 unique devices and maintaining a 99% network access rate.
At San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, T-Mobile upgraded the venue’s connectivity infrastructure and expanded 5G coverage around the area and transportation system. Like Verizon and AT&T, T-Mobile has support teams on-site at games to monitor its network.
Phone tips for watching World Cup matches
After running all the battery-hungry phone tests, my best advice is to bring a portable battery pack and charging cable.
Other tips for attending a match:
- Use your phone’s virtual wallet for game tickets, transportation apps, and in-stadium purchases.
- Make sure your phone’s software and apps are updated.
- For faster speeds, use a 5G network instead of stadium Wi-Fi.
- If you want the fastest network possible, sign up for AT&T Turbo Live in advance.
Corinne Reichert attended the World Cup game as a guest of Motorola/Lenovo. CNET’s judgments and opinions are our own.
