T-Mobile boosts LTE Capacity Nearly 20x Ahead of the Super Bowl in Houston

To provide blazing speeds to massive crowds in Houston for the Super Bowl on February 5th, T-Mobile permanently increased 4G LTE capacity nearly 20x in and around Houston’s NRG Stadium and more than 10x at area airports, venues and hotels in the last year.

Overall, the greater Houston area now has 5x more capacity – permanently – so almost anywhere throngs of football fans go in Houston they’ll get great LTE coverage and speed.

“When carriers get ready for big events, they just bring in a lot of temporary, short-term fixes. That’s not how we roll, so when we souped up T-Mobile’s network in Houston, we did it permanently and all through the city — not just in one place and not just for the weekend,” said Neville Ray, T-Mobile CTO.

“For us, just being the fastest and most advanced LTE network is never enough. We push the limits every day, and I predict T-Mobile’s LTE network will be the fastest at this year’s game, just as we were last year!”

Locations with nearly 20x more capacity include NRG Stadium and adjacent parking areas. Places with 10x more permanent capacity include George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Houston Hobby Airport, Discovery Green, Minute Maid Park, Toyota Center, Rice Stadium, George R. Brown Convention Center, and several area hotels.

The Un-carrier even has you covered with LTE underground via its Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) in Houston’s underground tunnel system.

T-Mobile achieved these massive increases in capacity with:

• more LTE spectrum, including Extended Range LTE (more lanes on the LTE highway, with a signal that goes twice as far from the tower and is four times better in buildings);
• three carrier aggregation for a total of 35+35 MHz of LTE (all our LTE signals are combined together to make one really big, really awesome signal);
• new small cells and Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) (lots – srsly, LOTS – more LTE antennas pumping out signals inside buildings and in other spots where regular towers don’t reach as well);
• 4×4 Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) and 256 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM), making our LTE even faster! (some advanced AF technology that nobody else in the US has rolled out yet).