I was pretty sure mmWave was getting installed at large entertainment venues, this PR from a couple days ago says Verizon has mmWave at all NFL stadiums[1]. ATT PR from two years ago says ATT had mmWave coverage in parts of 39 cities and 20 venues [2]. I couldn't find recent T-Mobile PR on this topic, but I'm pretty sure they've got mmWave deployments too.
So... networks are deployed, and handsets are deployed, but mmWave network deployment is always going to be sparse and in places with lots of handsets, they don't all need to be on mmWave, those that are free up other spectrum for other phones, so everyone gets improved service.
So how will the almost as big EU stadiums handle the load?
(maybe the answer is europeans go to watch the game...)
I found it interesting that Puerto Rico gets the iphones with mmWave, but USVI and Guam don't.
Also noticed that nonUS/CAN phones don't support 600mhz, and that can make a difference when you have lots of obstructions (e.g. forest/concrete) if you're missing that in US/CAN. Your next available frequency will likely be be 850mhz - doesn't penetrate as well, and could have more traffic/noise on it.
That's a good question. There are other techniques to get large crowd reception, so they'll probably invest in those, if they do?
Very interesting for USVI and Guam. I agree 600 mhz seems like a band you want to have... May as well after all the pain to over the air tv broadcasting it caused to get that spectrum. Unfortunately spectrum allocation seems to be in small chunks here and there with little coordination between regulators and then you end up with what we've got: any given handset can't reasonably work on all the bands, so a maker has to pick the bands based on the probable place of use (and sometimes the network, too)
I have a friend who worked at one of the major stadiums in the Netherlands and they had thousands of WiFi access points with directional antennas. Each one with a highly targeted beam covering only a few seats.
> mmWave network deployment is always going to be sparse and in places with lots of handsets, they don't all need to be on mmWave, those that are free up other spectrum for other phones, so everyone gets improved service.
I understand but obviously those on mmWave are getting a really great performance as this is the one area where 5G really provides a major improvement (due to the massive available bandwidth at those frequencies).
What bothers me is that as a European I pay the same for my flagship phone (sometimes even more as Samsung offers high discounts in the US in an attempt to take marketshare from Apple - here in Europe they are already #1) but I miss out on this feature. And often others as well, most of the time European Samsung phones get the far inferior Exynos chipsets whereas US phones get Snapdragon. Especially in heat and battery life these are a great improvement.
And it's not just Samsung. Apple does the same, which means there is almost no incentive for providers to ever start deploying mmWave in these busy areas.
So... networks are deployed, and handsets are deployed, but mmWave network deployment is always going to be sparse and in places with lots of handsets, they don't all need to be on mmWave, those that are free up other spectrum for other phones, so everyone gets improved service.
[1] https://www.rcrwireless.com/20231019/venues/verizon-mmwave-n...
[2] https://about.att.com/innovationblog/2021/c-band-5G.html