Verizon spent $70 million to triple Bay Area LTE capacity ahead of the Super Bowl

Verizon wants to make sure that all of its customers who are headed to the Super Bowl have full coverage, so the carrier has more than tripled its 4G LTE network capacity in the Bay Area. The carrier spent $70 million in what it calls a "long-term investment" to boost network performance from San Francisco to Santa Clara. With the additional capacity, Verizon will be able to deliver a more reliable connection, even when the area is overly saturated with users.

These upgrades have been in the works for two years: Verizon has built 16 new area cell sites improving network performance at more than 10 major area venues, three major airports, and several hotels. The $70 million investment allowed Verizon to:

• Build 16 new area cell sites
• Install 75 small cells
• Deploy for the first time a patented antenna system to reach the lower stadium seats
• Increase peak downlink speeds
• Boost capacity by adding 37 XLTE to existing sites
• Complete preparations to deploy 14 mobile cell sites in high traffic locations

During the 2015 Super Bowl, Verizon customers used up 4.1 terabytes of data, and it has made it so this year the stadium can handle almost double that traffic if needed.

Source: Verizon