Verizon readies its network in Kansas City for football playoffs and the 2023 draft

What you need to know:

• 5G Ultra Wideband service deployed throughout the city

• Wireless system being installed at Kansas City International Airport

• Increased capacity and coverage at key venues and hotels

• Upgraded fiber to manage increased data use

KANSAS CITY, MO – Football fans in Kansas have a lot to cheer about on and off the field thanks to Verizon network upgrades throughout the market. For fans enjoying football parties to close out the season and for those coming in to enjoy the pro football draft this spring, Verizon has made major network enhancements throughout Kansas City.

The biggest upgrade for residents and visitors in Kansas City is 5G Ultra Wideband technology which engineers have added to 75% of the cell sites serving the market. 5G Ultra Wideband enables customers to experience the power and performance of Verizon’s service with download speeds up to one gigabit per second and the capacity to support data-heavy actions, like mobile gaming and streaming.

The speeds and capacity of 5G Ultra Wideband will give a huge boost to large gatherings of people participating in the upcoming football-related festivities and will provide long term benefits to the area. Customers across Kansas City can now do everything from downloading huge documents and seamlessly streaming movies in HD audio and video, to playing console quality games, and conducting video chats and video conferencing calls with clear sound and video while on the move.

Traveling to Kansas City

For visitors traveling to Kansas City, Verizon engineers are installing a permanent Distributed Antenna System (DAS) in Kansas City International Airport, scheduled to go live in March. This will provide wireless service throughout the terminals and make it easier for travelers to connect and download content to keep them entertained on flights. When traveling around the city, residents and visitors will enjoy added capacity and coverage through the addition of four new macro cell sites covering the metro area and permanent in-building solutions at the World War I Memorial and Loews Hotel.

Anticipating an influx of visitors, Verizon engineers will deploy temporary cell sites specifically covering the areas where draft events will take place. These temporary towers will provide 5G Ultra Wideband coverage and use a performance enhancement technology that divides crowds into sectors like slices of a pie. Each slice or sector can be adjusted individually to handle wireless traffic. This technology gives Verizon engineers more leeway to adjust performance based on where customers move and how they use data. Additional temporary in-building solutions will be added to Union Station IBS and local hotels including the Westin and Sharaton.

Growing fiber connections

Lastly, the addition of 5G service and the many additional wireless solutions allow far more data to travel on the wireless network in Kansas City. That exponential increase in data carried into and out of the cell sites serving the community requires upgraded fiber optic cable links. Fiber optic cables are used to move data between cell sites and connect those sites to the rest of the network. Verizon has increased the capacity on the fiber connections in many cell sites in the Kansas City area so they can carry 10 times the amount of data.

So for customers living in, or traveling to, Kansas City for all the football action over the next several months, Verizon has a network they can count on.