How Rogers is Enhancing 5G Network for Taylor Swift Concerts

Taylor Swift breaks all kinds of records – and that extends to her fans’ data usage. During one show at Wembley Stadium in London, Swifties consumed a record 5.58 terabytes (TB) of mobile data at the stadium. That’s enough to stream her entire music catalog 4,500 times, which would take a decade.

Then there was Taylor’s concert in Melbourne, Australia at the MCG Stadium, where fans used an average of 15 TB of data per night.

At the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, AT&T’s network handled a staggering 28.9 TB of data during the busiest day of Swift’s three-day tour stop there. To put that into perspective, if fans shared 200,000 photos or 400 hours of video, that would only chew up 1 TB of data.

Investing In the 5G Network at Rogers Centre

Rogers has just completed an $8 million upgrade to its 5G network at Rogers Centre in Toronto to bring the best fan experience for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour. Teams have spent 6,000 hours planning the project and 10,000 hours installing new equipment and infrastructure.

With faster speeds, lower latency and more capacity, 5G technology is critical for today’s concert experiences as large numbers of fans livestream and share the moment in real-time.

Rogers installed the latest technology to deliver three times more 5G network capacity throughout the stadium. That’s the equivalent to what would traditionally be covered by 33 towers in downtown Toronto.

Technical teams lifted and installed antennas near the top of Rogers Centre’s 86 metre-high roof to bring fans with floor seats the same 5G network experience as those in stadium seats for the first time.

“As the proud presenting sponsor of Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour, we’ve upgraded our 5G network to get ready for fans at Rogers Centre,” said Mark Kennedy, Chief Technology Officer. “Taylor fans use record amounts of data to livestream as well as share videos and photos from her shows, and this investment will ensure they have the best experience.”

Fans Already Seeing Improved Network Performance

After upgrades started this summer, network performance has already improved. Fans on Rogers 5G network at the Pink concert in August saw download speeds twice as fast and upload speeds eight times faster than the Diljit Dosanjh performance in July, where was used 5.4 TB of data.