As part of what looks like a league-wide push to bring more of its 5G services to NFL stadiums, Verizon has deployed new 5G millimeter-wave network assets at Empower Field at Mile High, home of the Denver Broncos.
Matt Burns, Verizon network performance manager for the Colorado and Wyoming region, said in a phone interview that during this football offseason Verizon added 35 new 5G mmWave antennas to the Empower Field at Mile High network, bringing the total to 51. Verizon also upgraded the existing 5G mmWave equipment, Burns said, to match the new gear which he said is capable of delivering download speeds of up to 4 Gbps.
According to Burns, 35 of the mmWave antennas are positioned to cover the main stadium seating bowl, with placements on the underside of seating-level overhangs as well as on top of the light towers, the latter to cover the top level of stadium seats. The rest of the antennas, Burns said, have been deployed in areas like stadium entrances.
“Anywhere where there are 100 or 200 fans close together in a tight area, we want to blast them with 5G,” Burns said.
Separately, Verizon has also announced deals with the Washington Commanders, the Cleveland Browns, the Tennessee Titans and the Carolina Panthers to be the “official” 5G network provider for those teams. Verizon also previously announced a deal with the NFL to bring CBRS networks to all 30 NFL stadiums for coaches’ sideline communications. According to Burns, the CBRS network at Empower Field is already working and ready for Denver’s regular season opener on Sept. 10 (See separate story).
Assisting with field coverage for concerts
With its open-bowl design, Empower Field at Mile High has always presented a network challenge for concerts and other events where fans are seated on the field, since there are no mounting places directly overhead for antennas. But according to Burns, the new higher-level mmWave antennas actually were able to provide field coverage for some recent events, including an Ed Sheeran concert on Aug. 19 that set a record for total attendees at the stadium with 85,233 in attendance — with approximately 10,000 of those fans seated on the field. Though he didn’t have exact stats from the event, Burns said the Sheeran concert had more cellular traffic than the Swift shows, most likely because there were more people on the field where the stadium’s Wi-Fi network does not reach.
“Just standing on the field, I can get 1 Gbps [download speed]” from the new 5G mmWave antennas, Burns said.
Burns said that the new 5G assets are layered on top of Verizon’s existing neutral-host 4G LTE DAS at the stadium, which has approximately 965 antennas spread throughout the stadium in various deployment areas that include under-seat, handrail enclosures, and overhead locations. For next season, Burns said Verizon plans to add additional coverage in its C-Band spectrum holdings, which also support 5G communications. Verizon also has a deal at the stadium that can autoconnect its customers to the venue’s Wi-Fi network. According to the Denver Post, recent concerts like the Sheeran show and Taylor Swift’s Denver stop saw Wi-Fi event data totals in the 20-plus terabyte range.
