COW

AT&T: 23+ TB of cellular data used on D.C. Mall last weekend

AT&T's new "drum" antennas at Coachella. Photos: AT&T.

AT&T’s new “drum” antennas at Coachella. Similar antennas were used in Washington, D.C, this past weekend. Photos: AT&T.

The two big events on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., last weekend produced big wireless-data usage numbers, with AT&T reporting it saw 23.3 terabytes of cellular data used on the temporary and permanent networks it used to serve the National Mall.

To handle the traffic from huge public crowds for both Friday’s Presidential inauguration ceremonies and for Saturday’s Women’s March on Washington, AT&T deployed seven “super COWs” or cell towers on wheels to the area, joining a local Distributed Antenna System (DAS) network as well as local macro sites.

According to AT&T, it saw 4.3 TB of traffic on its National Mall networks on Thursday, followed by 8.8 TB on Friday, 8.3 TB on Saturday and 1.9 TB on Sunday.

Verizon Wireless, meanwhile, provided statistics for traffic on its National Mall-area networks for Friday’s events, but would not provide specific totals for Saturday’s march. According to Verizon, its customers used “approximately 7 terabytes of data” Friday, with two-thirds of that activity being used on social media applications and websites, with Facebook and SnapChat being the top two apps used by Verizon customers. According to Verizon, data sent from customer devices — meaning network uploads — was four times the typical daily average.

Verizon did not reply to emails and voice messages asking why it would not provide data totals from Saturday’s event in D.C.

Super DAS: AT&T, Verizon beefed up Phoenix area with mobile cell towers and more DAS

AT&T Cell on Wheels (COW) deployment outside the ESPNZone in Phoenix. Credit all photos: AT&T (click on any photo for a larger image)

While we wait for the traffic stats from the incredibly exciting Super Bowl XLIX, here’s the final installment of our Super DAS series — in which the two major U.S. wireless carriers, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, provide some details about how they beefed up coverage in and around Phoenix to handle the expected Super Bowl communications crush.

The lengths to which AT&T and Verizon went to ensure no signals were dropped are interesting from several business points of view; to be sure, no major carrier wants Twitter to erupt with reports of dropped calls from a major event. (AT&T folks still grimace when you bring up the historical benchmark for this type of problem, SXSW and Twitter.)

The flood-the-zone type of temporary enhancements now brought in on a regular basis for big events also point out the ongoing need for distributed antenna system (DAS) deployments: the basic fact of our ever more connected lives simply means that for large public venues, or places where lots of people gather at once, the legacy cellular network designs simply can’t keep up.

ESPNZone DAS gear in underground garage

To make sure it could, AT&T said it deployed 10 cell towers on wheels (aka “COWS”) to the Phoenix area in advance of the weekend, while also upgrading its equipment at DAS installations like the one Crown Castle had at the University of Phoenix Stadium as well as at other points around town. AT&T folks were kind enough to supply us with plenty of photos of the deployments — we especially like the DAS built in an underground garage near the ESPNZone outlet in Phoenix.

Verizon also said it deployed 13 COWs and upgraded many DAS deployments in the Phoenix area prior to the Super Bowl, and even said it had a team of network technicians on hand to make sure traffic kept running smoothly.

How did it all work out? So far, we haven’t seen any reports of missed cellular connections during Super Bowl weekend (which also included the Waste Management golf tournament in the area, further adding to cellular pressure). What it does make us wonder about is the economic solution in the future to big-crowd wireless traffic concerns, which clearly aren’t limited to inside the event venue anymore. Are more portable deployments the way forward, or will we see more DAS installations that can be upgraded quickly on the fly?

More photos below!