Archive for March 1st, 2010
How AT&T Plans to Keep SXSW From Swamping Its Network – GigaOM
Smartphones, including iPhones, were all the rage at SxSW in 2009.
Last year, the hordes of South by Southwest-attending geeks toting iPhones blew out the AT&T network around the convention center in Austin, resulting in dropped calls and crappy connections for many attendees. The subsequent news coverage showed off Ma Bell%u2019s network failures for the entire world (or at least the world that cares about such things.) This year, having activated more than 8.7 million more iPhones since last March%u2019s debacle, AT&T is pulling out all the stops to make sure the digerati have the coverage they want during SXSW 2010. Here%u2019s how.
- A Distributed Antenna System (DAS) at the Austin Convention Center: This system provides the equivalent coverage of eight cell sites, with 50 antenna nodes providing coverage throughout the venue. The system was completed in recent weeks.
- Beefing up the Cell Sites: Austin isn%u2019t the only city to benefit from this, but AT&T has moved from one radio network %u201Ccarrier%u201D to three in the city, which essentially enables the carrier to use more of its spectrum. My sources tell me this means AT&T is using about 30 MHz of spectrum for 3G rather than the 10 MHz that one radio network carrier would offer. And speaking of spectrum, the upgrade to the 850 MHz band that was begun in a rush during the last SXSW will also help, as will the upgrade to HSPA that AT&T completed across its network earlier this year.
- Three Temporary Cell Sites: The carrier will deploy two Cells on Wheels, as well as add a third temporary site on an undisclosed rooftop. Those sites will provide AT&T Wi-Fi as well as 3G service, and are positioned where SXSW organizers and AT&T expect to see large amounts of traffic.
- Better Backhaul: AT&T was scant with details but said via email: %u201CCompared with last year, we have added fiber-optic connections to more than quadruple the backhaul capacity of each of the eight cell sites that serve the event area, and temporary sites will also be served by extensive backhaul.%u201D
AT&T worked with SXSW event planners to make sure the system in place will suffice, and it%u2019s not turning its back on the event this year, either. Last year, the complaints caught the carrier off guard, but for 2010 a team of AT&T network engineers will monitor the Austin network 24/7 throughout the duration of the event to make sure it stays up.
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