INDIANAPOLIS — Cellphone companies have started working to expand the data bandwidth for wireless devices that will be available around Lucas Oil Stadium ahead of February's Super Bowl.
The project is needed because of the increased bandwidth demand expected at the stadium, where those attending major events now have trouble getting cellphone signals.
Wireless providers are studying data use from this year's Super Bowl to determine what infrastructure is needed at the three-year-old Lucas Oil Stadium, said Eric Mann, Verizon Wireless engineering director.
"We sent a team of local engineers to Dallas the week before the Super Bowl, and stayed there through the game," Mann told the Indianapolis Business Journal. "We're analyzing the call mix from Dallas, and now we're building our system here based on that information."
NFL officials will continue to monitor handling of the bandwidth situation leading up to the Feb. 5 game, but "do not anticipate any issues at this point," league spokesman Brian McCarthy said.
"As we do for every Super Bowl host stadium, we provided our standards for hosting the game," McCarthy said. "The Super Bowl puts greater pressure on the infrastructure than a regular-season game or event due to the volume of calls and transfers of data from the increased number of fans and staff in the building."
Barney Levengood, executive director of the city's Capital Improvement Board, declined to provide details on the project because an agreement hasn't been signed, but he said the improvements won't cost any taxpayer money.
NFL and large college stadiums recently have surpassed airports as the places where there is the highest usage of data per square foot, said Matt Melester, senior vice president in North Carolina-based Commscope's wireless coverage division.
"Where else do you have 70,000 to 100,000 data hogs in one place?" said Melester, who worked on cellular infrastructure at Cowboys Stadium. "Demand is outpacing [upgrades]. No operators want their customers to not be able to access basic voice and text services."
About 70,000 fans will be at February's Super Bowl, along with more than 4,500 media members — 20 times more than cover a regular-season NFL game.
Wireless carriers involved hope to have the system upgraded in time for the Big Ten football championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium on Dec. 3.
"We view the Big Ten Championship game, with it being a national sporting event, to as close to being a model for the Super Bowl as we can get," Mann said. "That will give us some time to tweak the system between Dec. 3 and the Super Bowl."
Melester said he expects Lucas Oil Stadium will need future bandwidth expansions. Cowboys Stadium, which opened in 2009, has already undergone three.
"The main problem is that, as soon as operators add more capacity to their networks, it gets used," Melester said. "The amount of bandwidth capacity that data services consume via smartphones is enormous. And it's only going to grow."
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