Villa Park to offer 4G coverage

[PeterWithesShin]

Villa Park looks set to be the first stadium in the Barclays Premier League to offer 4G phone coverage to fans on a matchday.

Supporters should be able to better text and phone on their mobiles in B6 from Spring 2014.

Villa have been in discussions with Vodafone for the past two years in a bid to expand the matchday cellular coverage at the stadium.

Mobile phone coverage has been spotty and non-existent at times in the past, due to the sheer number of supporters at Villa Park.

Discussions were in conceptual stages for the past twelve months but sitework began at Villa Park this week.

It is a big project, with the "extensive" system of antennae and cabling inside the stadium taking approximately eight months to fully install.

The system would be attached to the underside of roofs and look very much like flat speakers - there would be no external masts.

It would provide Villa Park with very specific 4G cell coverage, separate from surrounding areas.

Only those within the perimeter of the ground would be able to access.

Tom Fantini, head of facilities, said: "We believe this is exciting news for our supporters, particularly those who actively rely on their mobile phones.

"We have fully recognised the need to improve and are working strenuously to make this happen.

"These plans should not only allow better communications for our supporters in terms of texting and calling but also increase the smart-phone data downloading capabilities of some of our more technologically-interactive fans."

[not3bad]

Any chance of wi-fi?

[Dr Butler]

selfishly ?  Wi-Fi in the Holte Suite would be nice..

UTV
The Doc

[mrfuse]

Any chance of wi-fi?

Yeah same for me they need too set-up a 24 hr guest connection for everyone that has purchased a ticket or longer for those with season tickets

[DB]

Ha. I work for Vodafone. Will find out...

[danlanza]

Just a question. Will there be anybody watching the game ? At all ?
I thought that was the idea of buying a ticket. Maybe it is just me.

[Darlo Dave]

Erm, can't you already get 4G on EE, in Birmingham, which Villa Park is in? Am I missing something here?

[Salsa Party Animal]

Vodaphone setting it up probably

[saunders_heroes]

Erm, can't you already get 4G on EE, in Birmingham, which Villa Park is in? Am I missing something here?

Try getting 4 or 3G  when there's nearly 40k people in the vicinity.

[Mark H]

Man $$ity have announced that they are wiring all the seats in the stadium to be able to have full connectivity , the 4G is great but the amount of people on it at the same time is the thing they have to solve , which I hoping they have with this being promoted !

[Darlo Dave]

Erm, can't you already get 4G on EE, in Birmingham, which Villa Park is in? Am I missing something here?

Try getting 4 or 3G  when there's nearly 40k people in the vicinity.

Ah, I've just read the article properly. Improving the facilities in the stadium, so as to give users higher capacity. Fair dos.

Although I was under the impression that 4G was supposed to eradicate this kind of problem anyway. Mind 4G is still in relevant infancy at the moment. It's not running at anything like full capacity yet, and there are still bugs to iron out.

[not3bad]

Just a question. Will there be anybody watching the game ?

Sure - with a good connection you'll be able to stream it live.

[Malandro]

wonder if I can get an update for my nokia torch phone

[pauliewalnuts]

Man $$ity have announced that they are wiring all the seats in the stadium to be able to have full connectivity , the 4G is great but the amount of people on it at the same time is the thing they have to solve , which I hoping they have with this being promoted !

I think that's the point of it.

[danlanza]

Just a question. Will there be anybody watching the game ?

Sure - with a good connection you'll be able to stream it live.

Very good.