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Network overloaded at college ballgame?
- Thread starter DrFillster
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Same thing in Manhattan, KS (K-State) for pretty much every game. I haven't been to a game in a couple of years, but I remember cell service being terrible for pretty much every carrier in the area. I'm not sure how 3G is, but they just added 3G coverage to the area this summer, so I won't be expecting much if I can make it up for a game later in the fall.
Yep! Kills me at UCF games! Yesterday, it took almost a half hour to send a text message (granted it was a video of all of us doing "zombie nation") and killed my battery..
Get used to it until at&t upgrades. I see this at any large sporting event or concert. Switching to edge sometimes works.
I know it's an old thread, but thus happened to me yesterday at the Eagles game. My buddy with Verizon had no issues.
Lol at all the people who don't understand how 3G works.
Your phone, and everyone elses's AT&T phone run on the same frequency. this means that every additional person using an AT&T phone in your vicinity creates 'noise' that your phone has to deal with
As a result, even if the NodeB (cell tower) for that sector has plenty of 'room' on it, the handsets themselves might not be able to distinguish their signal to the tower from all the 'noise' in the area.
What can happen often times is this:
-Phone A can't get a signal because of interference from phone B and phone C, so the cell tower instructs Phone A to boost its transmit power
-Phone A boosts its power, but now phone B can't get a good signal, so the tower instructs it to boost its transmit power as well
-etc etc etc what you can often end up with is a bunch of iPhones (which already suck at radio communications) screwing up the SNR (signal-to-noise-ratio) for themselves and other users.
One solution is for AT&T to set the SNR ratio in the RNC (radio network controller) so that all connections below a certain SNR are dropped by the tower. This would mean that phones with weaker radios (iphone) get screwed while maintaining quality-of-service for everyone else.
I am pretty sure (no proof, i don't work for AT&T) that this is what AT&T was doing because a few years ago it was only the iPhone users complaining about their calls being dropped while blackberry phones and other handsets didn't have problems.
Your phone, and everyone elses's AT&T phone run on the same frequency. this means that every additional person using an AT&T phone in your vicinity creates 'noise' that your phone has to deal with
As a result, even if the NodeB (cell tower) for that sector has plenty of 'room' on it, the handsets themselves might not be able to distinguish their signal to the tower from all the 'noise' in the area.
What can happen often times is this:
-Phone A can't get a signal because of interference from phone B and phone C, so the cell tower instructs Phone A to boost its transmit power
-Phone A boosts its power, but now phone B can't get a good signal, so the tower instructs it to boost its transmit power as well
-etc etc etc what you can often end up with is a bunch of iPhones (which already suck at radio communications) screwing up the SNR (signal-to-noise-ratio) for themselves and other users.
One solution is for AT&T to set the SNR ratio in the RNC (radio network controller) so that all connections below a certain SNR are dropped by the tower. This would mean that phones with weaker radios (iphone) get screwed while maintaining quality-of-service for everyone else.
I am pretty sure (no proof, i don't work for AT&T) that this is what AT&T was doing because a few years ago it was only the iPhone users complaining about their calls being dropped while blackberry phones and other handsets didn't have problems.
Why would you browse the internet? You went to a football game so might as well watch it.
I experienced this labor day when I was in Denver for the CSU/CU game and a little bit when I was in Vegas later that day.
When at the game, my phone would have 5 Bars/3G not able to load up the web, make calls or send text. Then the phone started switching between No Signal/GPRS/EDGE/3G. I ended up turning my phone completely off until the game was over and most of the crowds cleared out.
When in Vegas, I just kept getting data timeouts/page cannot load and had to keep refreshing.
Luckily I've never experienced this in San Diego where I live or I'd have to drop AT&T with the quickness.
When at the game, my phone would have 5 Bars/3G not able to load up the web, make calls or send text. Then the phone started switching between No Signal/GPRS/EDGE/3G. I ended up turning my phone completely off until the game was over and most of the crowds cleared out.
When in Vegas, I just kept getting data timeouts/page cannot load and had to keep refreshing.
Luckily I've never experienced this in San Diego where I live or I'd have to drop AT&T with the quickness.
Yep, my thought too. But I guess people might want to see the score of other games or something. This did get me thinking about how times have changed so quickly. When I was going to college football games (83-87) no one had cell phones, or even the ubiquitos PC computer in each room. Now, I would bet every second person has a phone with them at a game and every fourth person has a chronic need to use it for purposes other than enjoying the event. Amazing technological progress. I wonder what the sociologists or group psychologists think of this sort of fragmentation of our attention? And yes, I take my cell phone to games and concerts and generally use it to text events/ set lists back to others who are not attending. Loads of fun
Yeah, a disadvantage of Verizon's current CDMA setup is the lack of simultaneous voice and data. That is because they're kept on separate channels, whereas AT&T puts them together on one for 3G.
An advantage of Verizon's current CDMA setup is from the same reason: voice and data are separate (and have separate backend bandwidth allocations), and thus an overload of one type of user cannot affect the other... unlike on ATT where data saturation can cause 3G voice users to drop and vice versa.
Yes, well known issue. Almost ALWAYS happens at big events with more than 2 people on AT&T.
AT&T was able to solve it with extra equipment at South by Southwest this year. Apparently they pulled out the stops for that event. Makes me think it is not necessarily the spectrum, so much as the capacity of the towers and the backhaul. I think this was purely a PR thing. A lot of techies go to that show, and there was a ton of AT&T griping after previous year's connectivity fiascos. AT&T doesn't seem seem to have gone to the same extent other large music events this year (Coachella, Lollapalooza). I imagine Austin City Limits will be the same.
While it would be nice if they had this equipment at all the major events, it does cost a ton of money. Unfortunately, I don't see them spending the cash upgrading the fixed equipment near stadiums to deal with the overcapacity for one day a week, couple days a month sort of situation. Nor do I see them doing a road trip of all the sporting events for the same.
AT&T was able to solve it with extra equipment at South by Southwest this year. Apparently they pulled out the stops for that event. Makes me think it is not necessarily the spectrum, so much as the capacity of the towers and the backhaul. I think this was purely a PR thing. A lot of techies go to that show, and there was a ton of AT&T griping after previous year's connectivity fiascos. AT&T doesn't seem seem to have gone to the same extent other large music events this year (Coachella, Lollapalooza). I imagine Austin City Limits will be the same.
While it would be nice if they had this equipment at all the major events, it does cost a ton of money. Unfortunately, I don't see them spending the cash upgrading the fixed equipment near stadiums to deal with the overcapacity for one day a week, couple days a month sort of situation. Nor do I see them doing a road trip of all the sporting events for the same.
Yeah it happens, AT&T brings in a temporary tower to help at Ole Miss games and service is still bad. Last season my Cellular South phone worked fine, even internet browsing, but Cellular South has a much better network in MS since it is headquartered in Ridgeland.
AT&T = garbage
I had no service (even though I had full bars) at the Husky game in Seattle last weekend. What made it worse is that the dude in front of me and the guy behind me were both watching scores of the other games on their Verizon phones. This is a big deal during the game for me, but it makes it impossible to find people's tailgates before the game too... AT&T needs to figure this out. I'd give up simultaneous voice and data to have my phone work at sporting events because I'm at them so often. Not sure I've ever used simultaneous voice/data. It's impractical to have someone on hold while I take 5 minutes to search for something on my slow-a$$ 3G.
I had no service (even though I had full bars) at the Husky game in Seattle last weekend. What made it worse is that the dude in front of me and the guy behind me were both watching scores of the other games on their Verizon phones. This is a big deal during the game for me, but it makes it impossible to find people's tailgates before the game too... AT&T needs to figure this out. I'd give up simultaneous voice and data to have my phone work at sporting events because I'm at them so often. Not sure I've ever used simultaneous voice/data. It's impractical to have someone on hold while I take 5 minutes to search for something on my slow-a$$ 3G.
scores, stats, rosters, there's a million things i'd like to get up to date info on while at the game- 99% related to the game itself, enhancing the experience.
i also like to text friends who are watching the game i'm at who are at their homes and ask them what they thought about the last controversial call (they get to see a replay, i don't) or why such and such player hasn't seen the field during the last 2 drives (injury? idk, they don't tell us at the stadium, but on tv they let you know)
bigpatky brings up all the points to why im on my phone during the game...
my 3g was dead at the OSU v. Miami game, it really annoyed me seeing the kid next to me playing on his Droid all game. One thing you cannot dispute is the excellent vid/pics this phone can take, AT&T can't mess with that!
my 3g was dead at the OSU v. Miami game, it really annoyed me seeing the kid next to me playing on his Droid all game. One thing you cannot dispute is the excellent vid/pics this phone can take, AT&T can't mess with that!
Ive been going to michigan football games for years (finally as a student!)
and, at least when theres 110,000 people around, the network is useless
its never worked well
My iphone is useless at every bama game. Then data is slow until late night the next day. Thats after they supposedly upgraded the local network in tuscaloosa
Happens all over the world, which makes a nonsense of the fact the Apple refuses to put FM radios in their iPhones ("you can always listen to the radio online" etc)
Here in Scotland when at a football game, whether the crowd is 6000 or 60000, you have no Internet access most of the time. At half time, my mates with their crappy 10 year old Nokias can listen to FM radio to get the other scores, and I'm left looking like a plum trying in vain to get my brand new top of the range iPhone 4 to connect to anything at all.
How they laugh, not only at me but at Apple as well.
Here in Scotland when at a football game, whether the crowd is 6000 or 60000, you have no Internet access most of the time. At half time, my mates with their crappy 10 year old Nokias can listen to FM radio to get the other scores, and I'm left looking like a plum trying in vain to get my brand new top of the range iPhone 4 to connect to anything at all.
How they laugh, not only at me but at Apple as well.
Try the Gaslamp District on a game night or during Comic Con or on a Friday/Saturday night. My iPhone is useless. It's pretty comical. Full bars and can't do a thing
Only negative thing about living downtown.
It also happens to non-AT&T networks.
Immediately after the US/Canada Olympic hockey game this year the major cell networks across Canada all went down for a few minutes. All 30 some million people tried calling / texting / tweeting and facebooking at the same time and it completely overloaded our networks.
Immediately after the US/Canada Olympic hockey game this year the major cell networks across Canada all went down for a few minutes. All 30 some million people tried calling / texting / tweeting and facebooking at the same time and it completely overloaded our networks.