Considering their record so far, I know news about Minute Maid Park and the Houston Astros isn't something you are jonsing for at this point, but stay with me. AT&T announced it has thrown a new Distributed Antenna System (DAS) and Wi-Fi network into the ballpark.As a friend of mine recently said, the actual game is wallpaper to the food, friends and phones for most people. Have you ever noticed at a game or concert that it's sometimes difficult to get online using your phone because everyone else is trying to do the same? Well, this deal will help those who have AT&T.
The press release on this says, "Inside the venue, there are 225 access points to cover 40,950 seats, concession stands and concourse areas. Minute Maid Park visitors with a Wi-Fi-enabled AT&T smartphone can easily connect to the AT&T Wi-Fi network without any setup or log in required, through an auto-authentication process."
I am blogging about this because AT&T reached out to some Houston bloggers and took us out for coffee this week. One person I met there was Chris Penrose, South Texas vice president and general manager, AT&T.
From the things I talked with him about, here are a few items you might be interested in.
- In the last few years, AT&T has had an 8,000% increase in data use (not surprising, a few years ago, I could barely scan news feeds and my email...not much data usage there)
- The company is adding additional spectrum to its 3G and 4G networks
- AT&T has invested $825 million over the last three years into its network
- There is not a date in Houston for the AT&T 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) network upgrade but Penrose says we will be one of the first markets
- There are 12 new Android phones coming to AT&T this year
- The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in The Woodlands will also get the system going into Minute Maid Park I talked about above CONTACT: Leave me a Houston or Texas media news tip | COMMENT: Click to leave your thoughts on this post here
