NASCAR Presents Coverage Challenge While Sprint Shakeup Adds Intrigue

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nascarAll major sporting events present capacity challenges for carriers, but perhaps no other presents as large a challenge as NASCAR venues. For example, Indianapolis Motor Speedway boasts a 257,325-person capacity, many of whom are expecting to be able to share their race experience using their mobile devices.

2017 will mark the first NASCAR season since 2007, that Sprint has not sponsored the sport’s Cup Series, reports ESPN, which has sparked conversation regarding the quality of cell coverage at races in 2017.


The two main track operators—Speedway Motorsports Inc. (SMI) and International Speedway Corp. (ISC)—that operate 20 racetracks each, are working on equipping their tracks with DAS systems. ISC has six of its twelve tracks equipped, while SMI will have its eight equipped in 2017.

“The places where those carriers are on the DAS, they should see great, great coverage,” SMI Senior vice president Michael Burch told ESPN. “Based on the reports we get after every event, the dropped calls [for Verizon) have been minimal. … The data has been phenomenal — it’s been on Super Bowl level in terms of fans using it.”  

Verizon and AT&T have reached agreements with track operators to join their systems for 2017, but Sprint has yet to reach an agreement to operate on the systems. In the past, because of Sprint’s relationship with NASCAR, it could bring COWs (cell sites on wheels) to every track, but talks to provide COWs to select tracks in 2017, have so far fallen through.

ISC is currently in talks with American Tower Corporation to equip its venues with combined WiFi and cell service to provide coverage to fans. A patchwork approach to coverage is more cost efficient than a purely WiFi system; it would cost an estimated $40 million to install a WiFi system that covers the entirety of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

With Sprint no longer sponsoring the Cup Series, it is suspected that other carriers will now be much more interested in supporting NASCAR and its fans. Previously, other carriers were prevented from sponsorships and branding due to Sprint’s exclusive relationship with NASCAR.

Craig Neeb, ISC chief development and chief digital officer, told ESPN that carriers have been very interested in a variety of ways to provide wireless coverage to fans.  

“In the next few years, the realization from our technology partners is they’ve got to solve this. I think there are some good solutions out there that are coming in the near future.”

January 3, 2017

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