For the fourth straight year, AT&T (NYSE: T) and Mobilitie are teaming up to boost mobile network capacity at Churchill Downs ahead of next month's Kentucky Derby.
This year's updates, which include upgrades to the massive underground server room and Mobilitie's managed distributed antenna system on site, will boost capacity by 50 percent, enough to accommodate up to 300,000 guests.
According to the Courier-Journal, about 170,530 people attended last year's running and AT&T's network carried 4.3 terabytes of data.
"Churchill Downs continues to host the highest-attended sporting event of the year with hundreds of thousands of visitors. Our long-term partnership with Churchill Downs allows us the opportunity to operate and maintain one of the largest and most advanced wireless networks in sports," said Christos Karmis, President of Mobilitie, in a statement.
"We're committed to robust investments in our networks all across the Commonwealth, and our network enhancements at Churchill Downs is just one way that we're investing in the Louisville area." said Hood Harris, president of AT&T Kentucky, in a statement.
During the event, the companies will have six engineers on site to manage the expanded network from the server room.
These most recent network upgrades have taken six months to complete.
For more:
- see this Courier-Journal article
- see this press release
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