Ready for Football: T-Mobile Boosts LTE Capacity in Minneapolis by 35x

Over the last two years, the Un-carrier expanded coverage and permanently increased LTE capacity up to 35x in and around key locations in the Twin Cities by launching several LTE Advanced technologies, deploying new small cells and distributed antenna systems (DAS), doubling LTE spectrum and adding backhaul. All these upgrades have made T-Mobile’s LTE network the fastest in the Twin Cities, based on tests from real wireless customers.

“Our network is already faster than AT&T and Verizon across the Twin Cities, but we are obsessed with the customer experience, so we started getting ready for the Super Bowl with these permanent improvements two years ago,” said Neville Ray, Chief Technology Officer for T-Mobile. “T-Mobile customers will get amazing speed and coverage whether they’re in the stadium or anywhere in Minneapolis … even long after the Super Bowl crowds leave.”

With more than one million people expected to attend events for Super Bowl LII, T-Mobile focused its network enhancements where the biggest crowds will be, boosting capacity 30x for spectators at U.S. Bank Stadium, 35x for the Super Bowl Experience at the Minneapolis Convention Center, and 16x at the Xcel Energy Center for Super Bowl Opening Night. The Un-carrier has fans covered throughout the Twin Cities too, with nearly 8x increases at the Armory, Nicollet Mall, downtown St. Paul, the Mall of America, the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and hotels and venues across the area.

To achieve these gains, T-Mobile doubled the amount of LTE spectrum in the Twin Cities and launched a trifecta of speed-boosting LTE Advanced technologies including carrier aggregation, 4X4 MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) and 256 QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation), so T-Mobile customers with capable devices could more than double their previous download speeds. In addition, the Un-carrier deployed more than 120 small cells throughout the city, stadium and surrounding venues to provide additional coverage and speed inside buildings and other places that can be difficult for typical towers to reach. In the future, these small cells can also can be used to launch License Assisted Access (LAA) for even more capacity and faster speeds.

To make sure T-Mobile customers are ready to post, tweet, snap and share every key moment from the big game, T-Mobile also boosted upload speeds inside U.S. Bank Stadium by deploying Centralized Radio Access Network (C-RAN) technology. C-RAN can increase upload speeds by as much as 40% in high traffic situations, and has the added benefit of helping extend smartphone battery life.