AT&T unusable at large sporting events?

[gsweinberg]

Has anyone else noticed that anytime you are at (or near) a large sporting event the AT&T network becomes unusable? I live in Seattle and my office is across from Centurylink field, and anytime there is a Monday night game, my phone becomes unusable -- can't send texts, cant use mobile internet...
So last night, I'm up in Denver at the Broncos game and my phone was completely unusable... completely bricked. I couldn't send text messages, or access mobile internet of any sort. It was really strange how erratic the network was, it would go from full bars with the 4G indicator on, to Edge, to no connection at all. Just constantly up and down. So disappointing. Meantime, the Verizon and Sprint people sitting around me had no problem checking ESPN for scores or posting pics... in fact there was a guy sitting next to me who had a Sprint phone, who was able to post a 3 minute video to Facebook without any problem. I completely understand that when you have such a large amount of people in one location that there will be some degradation to the service, but in this case AT&T's network completely collapsed.

Has anyone else seen this? How can Verizon and Sprint be able to handle capacity and AT&T is struggling?

 

[brkaras]

Nope. Just just be your area

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[unglued94ta]

"IF" my memory serves me correctly, gsm towers can max out with the number of users connected to one tower. Cdma can continue to add people but the quality and distance a person can connect to the tower degrades.

Sometime please elaborate if I misspoke.

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[prissysox]

I know what you're saying. At Papa John's Cardinal Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky this happens to me. My brother with Verizon had no issues and his iphone is usually super crazy in speed compared to my phone. AT&T is even a sponsor!

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[brkaras]

It happens to me at Lambeau field but not at Miller Park or Summerfest where you can average 75000 people at any time, didn't have an issue at state fair either. AT&T has portable GSM booster that events can rent so the problem is solvable. Once LTE is up in Green Bay that won't be an issue anymore. It really just depends on how good coverage is in your city

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[NickLippert]

It seems like att is lacking towers downtown Seattle. I work just north of the stadiums and have trouble loading web pages on my S3. I am usually gone way before the Monday night games start so I can't compare that to a normal day.

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[Ry]

I wonder if it's a CDMA vs. GSM thing.

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[harryg27]

Had problems in Tuscaloosa last Saturday. Couldn't even get 3G.

 

[Ry]

I've been to crowded events at the United Center (Bulls game), Staples Center (Lakers game), Qualcomm Stadium (Chargers game), Petco Park (Padres game), Honda Center (WWE RAW), San Diego Convention Center (Comic-Con), and the Anaheim Convention Center (WonderCon) and data coverage was excellent on Verizon's 4G LTE network.

 

[stevek216]

I was maybe a quarter mile from the big house during the air force game and I couldn't get data on sprint. Voice still worked, or at least showed bars

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[ilifecomputer]

Happens to me at the coliseum, and huge concerts too.

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[gvndeb60]

Happens to me at Citizens Bank Park in Philly. But it also happens to my friend who has Verizon so....

I do remember reading an article where the NFL is going to have this fixed for next year bc the fans complain about it so much. They are trying to do whatever possible to make fans want to come to the stadium vs watch it at home and not give them any money.

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[unglued94ta]

Happens to me at Citizens Bank Park in Philly. But it also happens to my friend who has Verizon so....

I do remember reading an article where the NFL is going to have this fixed for next year bc the fans complain about it so much. They are trying to do whatever possible to make fans want to come to the stadium vs watch it at home and not give them any money.

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Makes sense to me. Allot of sporting events have you text them your seat location if there is a medical emergency or a fight/drunk, etc.

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[brkaras]

ATT addressed that issue this year in WI. All major venues like Lambeau, Miller Park, Bradley Center, Summerfest and State Fair all have DAS in place to prevent network congestion. I would think they are doing that all over the US right now

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[TSopranoNJ]

LTE works great on my iPhone 5 at MetLife Stadium in NJ....at the Giants game a few weeks ago, I was tweeting and facebooking, adding pics, etc LIGHTNING fast while inside and outside tailgating before the game as well

 

[gsweinberg]

Which carrier are you on?

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[pazzo02]

Which carrier are you on?

Sent from my HTC One X

Considering this is the AT&T subforum and the OP specifically says AT&T, I would guess AT&T.

I've never noticed any problems at Chicago events.

 

[anon62607]

There is something to this, on GSM up to EDGE, at least, there is a hard limit of how many devices can have an open voice channel going at once per 200 khz block of spectrum. CDMA is a little different in that the additional devices just appear as increasing noise in the channel. The way WCDMA (HSPA) works also I can imagine that there's a hard limit of number of users per sector, but I'm not sure what that would be. I've had the same kind of experience with GSM systems occasionally, but I remember being in Spain with enormous crowds at sporting events and the GSM phones working without trouble.

Usually also at major events the carriers will set up mini-cells - van borne cell towers to provide additional capacity. It could be that AT&T just neglected to do that occasionally. If your phone is LTE, did you also lose LTE service (which would be interesting).

"IF" my memory serves me correctly, gsm towers can max out with the number of users connected to one tower. Cdma can continue to add people but the quality and distance a person can connect to the tower degrades.

Sometime please elaborate if I misspoke.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Android Central Forums

 

[erwaso]

That's odd for sure. My wife and i never had an issue sending texts and pix from Coors(Rockies) or sports authority field(Broncos). Over the past 3 years from our AT&T phones.

 

[Phoneguy108]

Has anyone else noticed that anytime you are at (or near) a large sporting event the AT&T network becomes unusable? I live in Seattle and my office is across from Centurylink field, and anytime there is a Monday night game, my phone becomes unusable -- can't send texts, cant use mobile internet...
So last night, I'm up in Denver at the Broncos game and my phone was completely unusable... completely bricked. I couldn't send text messages, or access mobile internet of any sort. It was really strange how erratic the network was, it would go from full bars with the 4G indicator on, to Edge, to no connection at all. Just constantly up and down. So disappointing. Meantime, the Verizon and Sprint people sitting around me had no problem checking ESPN for scores or posting pics... in fact there was a guy sitting next to me who had a Sprint phone, who was able to post a 3 minute video to Facebook without any problem. I completely understand that when you have such a large amount of people in one location that there will be some degradation to the service, but in this case AT&T's network completely collapsed.

Has anyone else seen this? How can Verizon and Sprint be able to handle capacity and AT&T is struggling?

I am new to ATT and just experienced this. I was able to make calls and send texts but the internet would not connect. My brother and wife both have ATT and they were having the same issues. My wife was also having issues sending texts. What a joke. Until last week I was with Sprint and never had internet issues at large sporting events.