While all eyes have been on the action during the 2018 FIFA World Cup, off the field fans have been cheering the roll-out of faster mobile data speeds at several of the stadia used at the tournament.
Ericsson and Russian telecommunications operator and digital service provider MTS rolled out Europe’s largest Massive MIMO, which provided a five-fold increase in data throughput to support broadcast and streaming of high quality video on mobile devices. It also doubled download speed and spectrum efficiency.
The Luzhniki Stadium and Rostov Arena were two of the venues where MTS built telecommunications infrastructure, and prior to the competition it deployed Massive MIMI with Ericsson Radio System AIR 6468, which would enable the venues to increase network capacity.
MTS also introduced the technology at more than 40 sites in seven of the 11 cities that have hosted games during the tournament. This includes Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kazan, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara where increased network capacity was offer around the stadiums, railway stations, airports, fan zones, and recreation areas.
As mobile data demand surges MTS has seen video streaming lead traffic use and during matches at the World Cup it registered a 30% spike in social media use.
Andrei Ushatsky, vice president, technology and IT, MTS, said, “The extensive preparation of our network and the introduction of Ericsson’s 5G solutions for the football (soccer) tournament have clearly paid off, allowing MTS to successfully handle the overload and provide high-quality communication services to tens of thousands of our subscribers.
“High-speed mobile internet makes football fans more engaged as they can instantly share the most spectacular and exciting moments with others. Indeed, we found that during some matches uplink exceeded downlink, clearly showing that our customers preferred uploading photos and videos on social networks, streaming games and sharing content in messengers than watching video or surfing the internet.”
July 11, 2018
