Just trying to learn, here... What does being around a lot of other people have to do with anything? Thank you
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It's a case-by-case basis and depends on the venue. But, chances are likely that if you are around a huge amount of people (25,000, 40,000, 70,000, etc) that your smartphone will experience a weaker cellular signal because several thousand smartphones are all trying to connect and maintain a connection with very few cell towers/antennas. The cell towers/antennas get overloaded with too many connections and can't handle all of them at the same time.
When this (weaker signal) happens your smartphone has to work harder to search for and maintain the connection to the cell tower. This causes the battery to drain faster as a result which causes the battery/phone to get warmer and sometimes very hot which over a long period of time damages the battery.
But, if the cell service companies (at&t, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mo, etc) plan for extra capacity (ie bring in more temporary cell towers, trucks) to handle all the extra connections then you may or may not have any issues.
One sporting venue I visit a lot had great Verizon service but as more people started to arrive when it got closer to game time, my phone became unusable for data, the phone worked hard to find the signal, and the battery drained very quickly as a result.
But, over the last 2 years it has gotten much better. Now I get a great data connection at the games all the time (even with 20,000+ people around me). My guess is that Verizon improved the coverage there (maybe just for the game times or maybe added more permanent towers).