T-Mobile US has made significant improvements to 5G coverage and capacity at the stadium designated to host the US National Football League’s Super Bowl, resulting in a tenfold increase in peak download data rates. These upgrades, implemented at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, have enabled download data rates to reach up to 1.2Gb/s and peak upload rates of 200Mb/s.
Inside the stadium, T-Mobile installed 62 5G distributed antenna systems (DAS), with three covering the sports field and an additional seven deployed outdoors. Furthermore, enhancements were made to its mmWave service both within and outside the stadium. In anticipation of the sports event scheduled for 11 February, T-Mobile is also making temporary network upgrades in various locations.
The tests, conducted in collaboration with Ericsson and Qualcomm, were executed without anchoring low- or mid-band spectrum, according to T-Mobile. The carrier emphasized its testing of 5G SA mmWave for densely crowded areas like stadiums and large venues, highlighting potential applications for Fixed Wireless Access broadband services.
T-Mobile has consistently emphasized its “layer cake” strategy for 5G spectrum deployments. This strategy involves a coverage layer utilizing its 600 MHz low-band airwaves, supplemented by additional capacity and speed through midband spectrum holdings, with mmWave deployed selectively in areas where capacity needs or specific use cases necessitate it.
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