AT&T invests $10 million in better wireless service at Sanford Stadium

“We just completed this past Monday a expansion of our in-stadium system that will basically provide more than four times the capacity of last years for AT&T customers in the stadium,” said Paul Chambers, AT&T’s regional director of external affairs for northeast Georgia. “… Our expectation from testing — though you can never tell until you get 92,000 people in the stands — is that the fan experience this year will be greatly improved.”

Chambers said AT&T has experienced dramatic improvement with similar projects at the Georgia Dome, Turner Field and some other college stadiums.

The key is more the than 400 antennae that have been installed throughout the stadium and are designed to handle to demand of phones in specific areas. Chambers said AT&T also doubled the wireless capacity outside the stadium and in and around Athens to improve coverage as spectators tailgate and drive into the stadium area.

AT&T and other wireless carriers — Verizon has also made improvements at UGA’s stadium — have encountered increasing challenges in recent years as the phone usage has shifted from calls and text messages to data usage. Not only are customers are uploading more photos and video, but they’re actually watching other games on their devices.

“What you find when you analyze what’s going out of the stadium is voice calls and text messages take very little bandwidth,” Chambers said. “It’s when you upload pictures and videos that you start talking about massive amounts of data, and that’s where congestion can be. That’s what the, quote, bigger pipes are for.”