NRG Stadium gets major upgrade from Verizon
March 06 2023 - 10:00AM
NRG stadium, home to football showdowns, basketball buzzer beaters
and rodeo legends, recently received some major network
enhancements from Verizon. Verizon engineers recently added 45
nodes (the equivalent of 15 full size cell sites) inside the
stadium. These upgrades deliver 5G coverage using both Verizon’s
newly acquired C-band spectrum and its premium high-band mmWave
spectrum. Additionally, Verizon deployed advanced performance
control features, and upgraded coverage and performance in the
outdoor parking lot in anticipation of major events this year.
When the pro football’s biggest game came through Houston in
2017, Verizon’s engineers made major enhancements to the city,
increasing data capacity more than 450% and adding permanent
wireless solutions in key areas throughout Houston including NRG
stadium. Verizon engineers have not slowed down since.
In recent months, Verizon engineers have added a combination of
4G LTE and 5G Ultra Wideband coverage throughout the stadium with a
particular focus on providing 5G service to the lower bowl. Using
Verizon’s C-band and its premium mmWave spectrum, the additional
capacity will enable fans to connect to the events in the stadium
in unprecedented ways.
“How, when and where customers use their devices is constantly
changing, and we’re continually upgrading our network to stay ahead
of their needs,” said Eric Lia, Vice President of Engineering and
Access at Verizon. “Customers are clamoring for a more immersive
wireless experience. Our team has been working for months to
enhance the network and provide additional 5G coverage and capacity
at NRG Stadium, especially on the floor where so much activity
happens at these events.”
In addition to the extra coverage and capacity the 63 new
sectors of cell sites provide, Verizon engineers added a
performance enhancement technology that divides crowds into sectors
like slices of a pie. Each slice or sector can be adjusted
individually to handle wireless traffic. This technology gives
Verizon engineers more leeway to adjust performance based on where
customers move and how they use data inside the stadium.
The addition of C-band and mmWave spectrum allows far more data
to travel on the wireless network, and that exponential increase in
data is carried into and out of the stadium by two 100 Gbps fiber
optic cable links. This huge pipeline will be able to accommodate
the increase in usage Verizon engineers are seeing.
“We’ve exponentially increased the capacity on our cell sites
with all the c-band and mmWave spectrum we’re using in the market,
but we don’t want the fiber connections to our cell sites to be a
bottleneck that could slow the pace of data traffic moving around
our network. That’s why we have increased those pipes as well,”
said Lia.
Additionally, Verizon has added the equivalent of four
additional cell sites in the parking area outside of the stadium so
guests can continue sharing their experience with friends and
family as they come and go from the stadium.
MEDIA CONTACT:Karen
Schulz864.561.1527Karen.schulz@verizonwireless.com
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