The Philadelphia Eagles weren’t the only dominant force at work at Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans*. All three major carriers claimed a presence at the big event with connectivity as the game plan involving residents, media, fans, emergency services and on-field participants. Verizon (NYSE: VZ), T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) and AT&T (NYSE: T) not only covered the needs required on the day of the game but helped expand their respective footprints in The Big Easy. The Big Three “took a long-term approach, ensuring that their investments would benefit the city far beyond the Super Bowl,” said Kamal Sadarangani VP, Head of Telecommunications for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games.
As the “official 5G network of the NFL,” Verizon said its customers used 93.5 TB of data, while fans in attendance at Caesars Superdome used 38.1 TB of data in and around the stadium. The company said it installed 509 Ultra Wideband radios and 155 C-band radios along with 42 MatSing Ball Antennas on the stadium’s catwalks. Verizon said approximately 53 percent of the 65,719 attendees used their network. Claiming “super-fast” speeds within the stadium double and quadruple that of its competitors, Verizon cited a peak download speed of 4,161 Mbps and a peak upload speed of 1,067 Mbps. Median download was 1,775 Mbps while median upload came in at 159 Mbps.
Under the direction of the Mayor’s Office, T-Mobile said the City of New Orleans, invited them, along with other critical infrastructure partners, to support the New Orleans Critical Infrastructure Cyber Command (NCICC), a central hub for monitoring and managing possible risks during the game. T-Mobile engineers were on-site with emergency response teams at both the NCICC and the Wireless Command Center at the stadium to provide real-time monitoring and troubleshooting.
To fulfill that role, T-Mobile deployed numerous assets to provide additional coverage as needed such as its SatCOLTs (Satellite Cell on Light Trucks) and COWs (Cell on Wheels), including its largest XL COW, a 32-ft configurable mobile unit delivering over a one-mile radius of connectivity. The unit was strategically stationed near the Riverwalk to provide extra capacity where it was needed most. T-Mobile also took the opportunity to upgrade its DAS inside the stadium and claimed peak speeds of 1.2 Gbps for fans at the venue. High-traffic areas around the stadium, such as Champions Square, saw added DAS infrastructure deliver speeds up to 920 Mbps.
AT&T, the event’s neutral host provider, connected fans around the area and in the dome, as well as first responders. FirstNet added an upgraded DAS system handling nearly 29TB of data and setting a new record at the Superdome beating out the 2023 showdown between the same teams. To put that in perspective, that’s equivalent to streaming nearly 7.2 million hours of music or posting 5.8 million social posts with photos. The company said it added 69 small cell upgrades and C-band overlays in high-density areas like the New Orleans Convention Center while providing DAS upgrades featuring 91 zones of 5G+ C-band, 3.45 GHz, and mmWave across the stadium itself.
“The infrastructure investments made for Super Bowl LIX are a blueprint for how connectivity should be approached at large-scale events,” Sadarangani said. “The ability to optimize networks in real time using cloud-based vRAN, C-band, and mmWave proved valuable in managing massive data surges.The networks deployed for the Super Bowl aren’t just for the game—they now serve as part of New Orleans’ long-term telecom infrastructure.”
*The author is a resident of Philadelphia, home of the Super Bowl Champion Eagles.
By Jim Fryer, Inside Towers Managing Editor
Reader Interactions