$4 million Wi-Fi project planned at EverBank Field

[jaxjaguar]

anything helps. Even if 20% of the load is relieved by the people with t-mobile, the ability to have some sort of communication even via FB messenger would help. Internet would just be a bonus.

[Josh]

I know I was trying to text friends who were also in the stadium for the soccer match on where to meet up after the contest and could not even get texts to send.

If this is the issue, you're still out of luck. In fact, if your complaint is you can't make a call or text you're out of luck. Adding wifi won't ease congestion on the network. The same amount of phones will still be connected to the towers. Phone calls won't go through wifi (unless you're on tmobile) and text won't go through wifi at all.
The only thing this will do is allow for better internet. Texting and phone (again, unless on tmobile because they allow wifi calling) will remain the same.

Now, you could use facebook messenger or google hangouts to text.

You're still taking a massive load off the cellular network due to allowing users to pull data off WiFi vs 3G/4G/LTE. Also, iOS to iOS messaging and voice calls can be done over WiFi as opposed to the cellular network.

[goldy21]

I know I was trying to text friends who were also in the stadium for the soccer match on where to meet up after the contest and could not even get texts to send.

If this is the issue, you're still out of luck. In fact, if your complaint is you can't make a call or text you're out of luck. Adding wifi won't ease congestion on the network. The same amount of phones will still be connected to the towers. Phone calls won't go through wifi (unless you're on tmobile) and text won't go through wifi at all.
The only thing this will do is allow for better internet. Texting and phone (again, unless on tmobile because they allow wifi calling) will remain the same.

Now, you could use facebook messenger or google hangouts to text.

Every one of your posts on this thread have been flat out wrong...like straight up, factually wrong.

[duvaldude08]

I knew this was coming eventually. I think last season a few teams were used as a "pilot".

[spuwho]

Here are the stats from the last Super Bowl on WiFi usage in and around the stadium. (per Extreme Networks)

- of the 82,529 fans, they reached a peak connections of 13,500 users
- 3.2Tb of data was transferred (50Mb/hr)
- Social Networking was the highest use followed by web, real time communications (Twitter, etc.), search engines, cloud services.
- 60% of the WiFi users were using Facebook during the game (bored wives perhaps?) 18% on Twitter, 17% on Instagram
- 5 pictures per second were being uploaded (over 90,000 total)
- Facebook, Twitter & Instagram usage peaked during halftime and consumed 10% of all available bandwidth for the entire game
- 80% of the fans were on a single OS type
- 2500 WiFi clients were running software updates during the game

My thoughts....

If social networking only made up 10% of the traffic, that means the photos and software updates took up the rest. I wonder what will happen when the NFL finds out that the free WiFi is in effect subsidizing everyone's updates to Angry Birds, Clash of Clans and Candy Crush?

[coredumped]

I know I was trying to text friends who were also in the stadium for the soccer match on where to meet up after the contest and could not even get texts to send.

If this is the issue, you're still out of luck. In fact, if your complaint is you can't make a call or text you're out of luck. Adding wifi won't ease congestion on the network. The same amount of phones will still be connected to the towers. Phone calls won't go through wifi (unless you're on tmobile) and text won't go through wifi at all.
The only thing this will do is allow for better internet. Texting and phone (again, unless on tmobile because they allow wifi calling) will remain the same.

Now, you could use facebook messenger or google hangouts to text.

Every one of your posts on this thread have been flat out wrong...like straight up, factually wrong.

Really? Care to elaborate how you can make calls or send texts over wifi? Show me please because I'm quite curious how you're able to do this.

I don't think you know much about how cellular networks work.

Instead of saying I'm wrong or " like straight up factually" wrong why not tell me where I'm wrong. This is a forum after all, a place for people to communicate, not just say "wrong."

[carpnter]

I know I was trying to text friends who were also in the stadium for the soccer match on where to meet up after the contest and could not even get texts to send.

If this is the issue, you're still out of luck. In fact, if your complaint is you can't make a call or text you're out of luck. Adding wifi won't ease congestion on the network. The same amount of phones will still be connected to the towers. Phone calls won't go through wifi (unless you're on tmobile) and text won't go through wifi at all.
The only thing this will do is allow for better internet. Texting and phone (again, unless on tmobile because they allow wifi calling) will remain the same.

Now, you could use facebook messenger or google hangouts to text.

Every one of your posts on this thread have been flat out wrong...like straight up, factually wrong.

Really? Care to elaborate how you can make calls or send texts over wifi? Show me please because I'm quite curious how you're able to do this.

I don't think you know much about how cellular networks work.

Instead of saying I'm wrong or " like straight up factually" wrong why not tell me where I'm wrong. This is a forum after all, a place for people to communicate, not just say "wrong."

My guess is that goldy21 may think that all phones work like iPhones when it comes to text messaging.  If both people have iPhones, they would use the iMessage service which can use an internet connection, but if just one of the phones is not an iPhone it will have to go through the cellular network. 

[spuwho]

I know I was trying to text friends who were also in the stadium for the soccer match on where to meet up after the contest and could not even get texts to send.

If this is the issue, you're still out of luck. In fact, if your complaint is you can't make a call or text you're out of luck. Adding wifi won't ease congestion on the network. The same amount of phones will still be connected to the towers. Phone calls won't go through wifi (unless you're on tmobile) and text won't go through wifi at all.
The only thing this will do is allow for better internet. Texting and phone (again, unless on tmobile because they allow wifi calling) will remain the same.

Now, you could use facebook messenger or google hangouts to text.

Every one of your posts on this thread have been flat out wrong...like straight up, factually wrong.

Really? Care to elaborate how you can make calls or send texts over wifi? Show me please because I'm quite curious how you're able to do this.

I don't think you know much about how cellular networks work.

Instead of saying I'm wrong or " like straight up factually" wrong why not tell me where I'm wrong. This is a forum after all, a place for people to communicate, not just say "wrong."

Sprint and T-Mobile currently support WiFi based calling on certain Android phones. If you have a SIP client on your phone from Grandstream, 3CX, Cisco, you can originate calls over the 3G/4G data link or the WiFi. Other WiFi based calling would have to be supported by a pure IP service like Skype, Google Voice, ooVoo, etc.

SMS (texting) can be done over WiFi with Skype and Google Voice, however, I am not sure if SMS will be passed on a WiFi link if your Sprint/T-Mobile phone is currently on a WiFi call link. Would have to test it.

[coredumped]

My guess is that goldy21 may think that all phones work like iPhones when it comes to text messaging.  If both people have iPhones, they would use the iMessage service which can use an internet connection, but if just one of the phones is not an iPhone it will have to go through the cellular network. 

You're probably right, in which case I stand by my statements. As you know iMessage isn't really a text message, it's a proprietary protocol that uses the data portion of the network and thus will work over wifi (assuming the other person has an iPhone 5 or higher).

I thought I clarified that sending those types of messages would be possible when I said google hangouts/facebook messenger, maybe I should've included apple

[ProjectMaximus]

As Spuwho stated, with google voice you can text using data only and you can call by linking with Skype or Talkatone, etc. I do this when I am overseas and people have no idea I'm not in the country.

And Josh claims that pulling data traffic off the cell towers relieves congestion on the voice side. But I don't know if that's true or not.

[jaxlore]

the other side of this coin is this may also provide wifi to metro park if its strong enough. Not that anything happens are metro park anyway ;P

[jaxjaguar]

I highly doubt it'll reach that far and still be usable. Wireless N is good over some distance, but not that good. I also doubt they'll leave the network open when an event isn't happening... Then again I've been wrong before.

[spuwho]

I highly doubt it'll reach that far and still be usable. Wireless N is good over some distance, but not that good. I also doubt they'll leave the network open when an event isn't happening... Then again I've been wrong before.

If the transceivers are mounted on the light standards or scoreboards around the stadium, they will probably see it at Met Park and usability will be dependent on the gain on the individual device. Typically these are directional mesh arrangements and agree it is dependent on how they are managing the backend.

Honestly, these things are so manageable now, they could put it on a predetermined schedule to turn on an hour before the event and turn off an hour after.  But then they are paying for all that bulk bandwidth during the week when nothing is happening. I don't think the Jags office and the GBA use that much.

[Debbie Thompson]

Between swimming in the new cabana pools and Facebook posting, will anyone have time to watch the game?

[spuwho]

Between swimming in the new cabana pools and Facebook posting, will anyone have time to watch the game?

If they are successful in having ESPN RedZone running during the game on the scoreboard for the fantasy football people, you do wonder.

My Seattle Seahawk friend has been hearing about these stadium upgrades and asking me the same thing. Though he did add a derogatory remark about the lack of talent on the field demands people have other things to do when they are there.

I told him we were on the bus with Gus.