With the Republican National Convention set to hit Cleveland from July 18-21, and the Democratic National Convention slated for Philadelphia from July 25-28, the four U.S. nationwide wireless carriers say they've made the necessary provisions to their networks to handle a spike in traffic in those cities.
FierceWirelessTech reports that in Philadelphia, carriers already had made upgrades to handle Pope Francis' visit to the city last fall, but they made even more improvements for this month's events. For example, Verizon boasts that it installed a system at the Wells Fargo Center, the main DNC venue, to improve capacity by more than 550 percent, which is equal to more than six times greater capacity than before.
Planning for these events began months ago, but likely no one could have predicted just how high-profile these two events were going to be in an election year that has seen more drama than recent memory. And while carriers can plan for the times when traffic is expected to be extra high – like during those famous acceptance speeches when the balloons drop – they also have to plan for all the higher-than-usual traffic in the locations that surround the actual venues where the speeches are taking place. That usually means placing small cells in strategic locations.
You can read the full FWT report here.