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What to expect from your cell phone during ACL fest (Updated)
If you’re planning on going to Austin City Limits Festival this weekend, you’re probably wondering how reliable your cell phone calls, texting or Internet browsing might be.
(Traditionally: not so good. Last year was a big improvement, but in past years it’s been difficult to make calls and access any data services within such a huge crowd of people).
Verizon and AT&T both say they’re bolstering their networks to avoid a connectivity crisis. Verizon says it’s expecting 15 times the normal call volume this weekend at the fest and will be rolling in two COWs (Cells on Wheels), each with a 75-foot antenna for data and voice channels.
Verizon said in a release today that it’s increasing coverage and capacity at several cell sites near Zilker Park “We continually invest in the local network to ensure that devices run better on the Verizon Wireless network throughout the Austin area,” said region president Frank Antonacci in the release.
AT&T representative Mike Barger said that AT&T, which is no longer a stage sponsor this year, will be boosting Wi-Fi service for smartphone users, like those with iPhones.
“Fans on the ground at Zilker Park will be able to connect to the Internet using AT&T Wi-Fi via our hotspots covering festival grounds,” Barger said in an e-mail. He said AT&T is also bringing in COWs, but for sending photos, video or other data, Wi-Fi will be the way to go.
“The majority of our customers have AT&T Wi-Fi access included in their service plans. We’re encouraging customers to make sure their smartphone has Wi-Fi turned on so they can use Wi-Fi to send photos of the shows to friends and update their Facebook and Twitter accounts,” he said.
Update: John Taylor, a representative or Sprint, said they’ll handle ACL the way they do for NASCAR events at the Texas Motor Speedway and for their emergency response for Hurricane Ike: with a cell-on-wheels.
“Our experience has been that the crowds for Austin City Limits are well-served by adding one COW,” Taylor said, “the experience for customers should be seamless.
T-Mobile’s engineering team is also deploying a COW specifically for the festival, “which will help T-Mobile customers attending the festival share stories and special moments from Austin City Limits,” a representative from the company said by e-mail.
Post comments here over the weekend (if you’re able to) about your cell/data experiences at the fest.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment Categories: ACL Festival, Austin, Phones
Comments
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By John Taylor
October 2, 2009 5:54 AM | Link to this
As I told Omar, at Sprint our experience is that if we bring in one Satellite Cell on Wheels (SatCOW) that's more than enough additional capacity to meet the needs of everyone with a Sprint or Nextel phone. But I am interested in hearing from you if we need to do more. Email me directly with your experience and I will pass it on to our engineers.
John Taylor (john.b.taylor@sprint.com)
Public Affairs, Sprint Nextel Corp.
By Mike
October 1, 2009 4:50 PM | Link to this
Mine worked just fine last year.