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AT&T records 29.2 TB of cellular data during Coachella weekends

April 25, 2016 by Leave a Comment

AT&T's new "drum" antennas at Coachella. Photos: AT&T.

AT&T’s new “drum” antennas at Coachella. Photos: AT&T.

For AT&T, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival isn’t about sounds but about bandwidth: For the past few years, the cellular giant has tested some giant antennas to help connect the 75,000 concert fans who invade the venue in Indio, Calif., for two weekends in April, and this year those fans used up a total of 29.2 terabytes of data, according to AT&T, a new record for the provider at Coachella.

Last year AT&T rolled out something it called the cheese wheel antennas, basically big spheres with the tops and bottoms cut off, and a lot of antenna gear inside. With back-to-back 12 TB weekends, the cheese wheels as well as some drive-up cell towers on wheels (COWS) helped keep music fans connected at the concerts. This year, AT&T added to its antenna arsenal a beefier version of the cheese wheel it called the drum set, which helped record 18.6 TB of data the three days of the first weekend, and another 10.6 this past weekend, for a event total of 29.2 TB. For comparison, Super Bowl 50 back in February racked up a total of 26 TB of wireless traffic, with 10.1 TB on Wi-Fi and 15.9 TB on DAS.

Coachella’s AT&T data is all cellular, no Wi-Fi. In 2014, AT&T brought out its “big ball” antenna at Coachella, where AT&T has seen data usage grow by 20 times since 2011, through last year’s show. With this year’s total of 29.2 TB eclipsing last year’s 24 TB, there still seems to be no end in sight to the mobile-data usage at big events.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, DAS, Levi's Stadium, Super Bowl Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

AT&T’s new antennas help deliver twin 12-Terabyte weekends at Coachella

April 27, 2015 by Leave a Comment

The two "sliced" balls in the center are AT&T's new "Ten-Ten-Antenna," so called because it delivers 10x the cellular coverage of any previous such device. Credit all antenna images: AT&T

The two “sliced” balls in the center are AT&T’s new “Ten-Ten-Antenna,” so called because it delivers 10x the cellular coverage of any previous such device. Credit all antenna images: AT&T

We know Coachella’s not a stadium per se and it has little to do with sports but when you get big crowds of people together for an event the logistics of providing wireless access are pretty much the same. So we’re guessing that our normal readership crowd of stadium tech professionals is interested in a concert story, especially when it involves cool new antenna technology and 12 terabytes of data two weekends in a row — right?

The Super Bowl-type wireless data numbers were reported by AT&T on its mobile networks at the recent Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival (aka “Coachella”) outside Los Angeles, which this year once again attracted about 100,000 people during the second two weekends in April. If you’re a music fan you may have already heard some of the stories about performers like Drake and Madonna, but here at MSR we’re focused on the wireless stuff and AT&T had some interesting new gear at the event this year, including something it called the “Ten-Ten-Antenna,” which AT&T claims is “one of the largest cellular antennas in the world.”

When we asked why it was called the “Ten-Ten-Antenna,” here is the official response we received from AT&T:

The Ten-Ten-Antenna consists of two spherical balls with their tops and bottoms cut off (like a cheese wheel) that send out radio frequency (RF) signals in various directions based on how the network engineers attach transmitting elements to each antenna. This allows technicians to send the cellular signals even more precisely where they need to go, allowing them to be more efficient and provide customers with a better experience. The Ten-Ten-Antenna is able to offer a whopping 10x the capacity of a traditional, single-beam antenna – the most ever for an AT&T antenna or any cellular antenna we know of.

Coachella headliner AC/DC. Credit: Coachella website screen shot

Coachella headliner AC/DC. Credit: Coachella website screen shot

Last year AT&T brought out the “big ball” cellular antenna at Coachella, which is proving to be a pretty worthy testing ground for AT&T and cellular coverage of huge, connected crowds. It’s a good bet that folks attending all-day music festivals may be among the heaviest event data users, given the large amounts of downtime and the numerous chances to take pictures, videos and send messages about sights seen at an event with multiple big-name headliners and lots of crazy regular folk in the audience.

So maybe 12 TB each weekend for two weekends isn’t such a stunning number — but the other factoid that leaped out at us is AT&T’s claim that it has seen data rates at the festival increase 20 TIMES since 2011, a staggering increase that shows no sign of slowing down or plateauing.

Any other big festivals out there with wireless stories to tell? Send them our way!

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, DAS Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

New Antenna Design Helps AT&T Improve Stadium, Event Cell Coverage

August 7, 2012 by 2 Comments

When it comes to cellular phone innovation, the things that immediately come to mind are the highly advertised advancements, like 4G networks and the latest handsets. But AT&T has turned to the often overlooked cell-tower antenna to find an innovative way to help improve cellular reception in crowded public places, like big outdoor events and sports stadiums.

According to an AT&T blog post as well as an interview with some of the team members behind the innovation, Ma Bell has found a way to significantly improve cellular reception in crowded spaces by by building a new antenna that splits a regular signal into five separate “beams.” By splitting one spectral signal into several smaller but more focused ones, AT&T says it can gain approximately a 5x increase throughput from each antenna, a big necessary jump when confronted by crowds of tens of thousands of smartphone users.

Without getting too deep into the physics, the multi-beam approach is roughly the equivalent of adding four new cell towers, without the added expense of having to site, install and maintain new antenna placements. Though there is a tradeoff of having a narrower range of coverage (since the multi-beam signals are smaller in geographic footprint than those from traditional antennas) that isn’t a problem inside stadiums or at events, where phone users don’t move too much. AT&T has produced a cartoony video that kind of explains the advancements, albeit in a great-for-AT&T way (see end of post for the video).

According to AT&T folks we talked to the antenna was developed jointly by AT&T and a “boutique” antenna manufacturer AT&T declined to identify. The need for a better-performing antenna came out of AT&T’s challenges of bringing cellular service to the crowds at the Coachella music festival in Southern California, an event that can attract up to 85,000 fans each day.

Though we don’t have a geekout photo to share with you, the AT&T folks we talked to said the antennas are already being rolled out to numerous big-event venues, including NFL stadiums in Nashville and Minneapolis, collegiate stadiums in Hawaii and North Carolina, as well as golf and tennis events. The antenna seems to be a valuable part of AT&T’s ongoing arsenal of tricks to improve wireless coverage overall, which includes DAS installations as well as expanded Wi-Fi. For cell users at big events, any and all advancements are welcome.

Filed Under: 4G LTE, AT&T, NFL, Wi-Fi Tagged With: , , , ,