AT&T filed for a one-month Special Temporary Authority (STA) with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to demonstrate 5G leading up to, during and after the Super Bowl, which will be February 2 in Miami.
Plans call for using the 39 GHz band from January 20 to February 7 to strut 5G’s stuff.
The application states the demonstrations will involve up to three fixed base stations and up to 20 end user equipment (UE) units placed within 100 meters of the base station antennas. The base station and all UE antennas will be placed at a height of less than 4 meters at indoor locations at 950 MacArthur Causeway in Miami, indicating it’s not at the actual Hard Rock Stadium.
The STA, which is pending, doesn’t identify the manufacturers of the equipment.
5G systems provide low latency multi-gigabyte per-second (Gbps) mobile and fixed broadband services, and “AT&T seeks the STA to further demonstrate the advanced applications and services possibilities in the requested mmWave frequency band,” the operator stated.
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Interestingly, rival Verizon has been touting its 5G at NFL stadiums, including the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, using 28 GHz. The NFL has told fans that bringing 5G to stadiums will enable access to higher capacity, faster download speeds and lower latency, with the potential to provide other benefits for food and beverage concessions, maintenance and operations managers and public safety officials.
Signals Research Group recently published highlights from a study conducted at US Bank Stadium, home of the Minnesota Vikings in downtown Minneapolis, where Verizon has installed 13 radios using 28 GHz. They found that the 5G coverage was near ubiquitous throughout the stadium seating area, and the signal strength and signal quality were stellar everywhere they tested.