AT&T just wants you to know, their service will be ready to cover Dolphin Stadium for Super Bowl XLIV. Which makes you wonder, why wouldn't AT&T's service be prepped to handle the stress of a packed stadium?

A skeptic might see AT&T's distribution of a press release to promise adequate bandwidth during a professional sporting event as implication that, normally, AT&T isn't so reliable at sporting events!

But how big of a deal are sports, really? If you combine regular season games of the NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB, you'll realize there are 5,146 instances yearly in which, apparently, AT&T sees some reason to doubt their own coverage. And we're not even talking about preseason or playoffs.

That's 100 massive groups of people every week, sitting in one spot for several hours, all whom are on contract with a self-implied questionable service.

Congrats AT&T! A 0.02% success rate is really something to brag about!

AT&T Preps South Florida Wireless Network for Pro Bowl and Super Bowl

MIAMI, Jan 19, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Football players and fans aren't the only ones gearing up for the Jan. 31 Pro Bowl and Feb. 7 Super Bowl XLIV in Miami. AT&T is gearing up its South Florida network to help ensure those in town for the games have a winning wireless experience. AT&T announced today it is expanding capacity and coverage in and around Dolphin Stadium and other key areas in anticipation of increased voice and data traffic on its wireless network.

Network preparations for the big games include:

Three mobile cell sites on wheels, or COW, in the stadium parking lot;

A new distributed antenna system, or DAS, inside the stadium;

Fourth additional layer of capacity added to AT&T cell site inside the stadium: 2G (GSM/Global System for Mobile Communications) voice and data capacity increased by 100 percent and high-speed 3G (UMTS/Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) voice and data capacity increased by 280 percent;

Capacity added to cell sites in the vicinity of the stadium;

Capacity added to cell sites serving hotels and resorts in Fort Lauderdale and South Beach where Super Bowl activities will be hosted;

A COW set up to serve Fort Lauderdale hotels where teams will be staying;

Capacity added to cell sites surrounding the facilities where the teams will be practicing; and

The addition of backhaul connectivity to cell sites surrounding the stadium to increase voice and data capacity between the sites and the routing switch.

"These are two of the biggest games of the year, and fans attending them want to be able to share the experience, as it's happening, with those back home, whether its through a voice call, text message, e-mail or picture and video messaging," said Rich Guidotti, vice president and general manager, AT&T Mobility & Consumer Markets for South Florida. "Our network team has been working for months to deliver the best possible wireless experience for the games and their related activities."

AT&T network personnel will be on site for the games to monitor the network. Traffic on the stadium cell sites will be balanced as needed during the games in order to maximize the ability for customers to make calls and use data services.

In addition to the network upgrades for the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl, AT&T substantially increased capacity on its 3G network throughout South Florida in 2009 with the addition of a third layer of capacity, or "third carrier" to several hundred cell sites from Key West to Vero Beach. AT&T also activated 20 new cell sites, added 3G technology to dozens of existing cell sites, upgraded its UMTS/3G switching center, added 7 new Radio Network Controllers to significantly increase capacity and added more than 2,500 backhaul connections in 2009.

From 2007 through third quarter 2009, AT&T invested more than $134 million in its wireless network in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties alone.

"We'll continue to invest and innovate to strengthen our wireless network performance so that our customers can have the best experience with their AT&T devices," said Marshall Criser, lll, AT&T president, Florida. "Our network investments and upgrades have made it possible for us to continue to deliver the nation's fastest 3G network and national voice call retainability scores that are near best-in-class."

AT&T's 3G network is now available in more than 350 U.S. cities, including all major metropolitan areas.

AT&T recently completed a software upgrade at 3G cell sites nationwide that prepares the nation's fastest 3G network for even faster speeds. The deployment of High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 technology is the first of multiple initiatives in AT&T's network enhancement strategy designed to provide customers with the best possible mobile broadband experience, both today and well into the future. Faster 3G speeds will become available as AT&T combines the new technology with our second initiative during 2010 and 2011 to dramatically increase the number of high-speed backhaul connections to cell sites, primarily with fiber-optic connections, adding capacity from cell sites to the AT&T backbone network.

For more information about AT&T's coverage in South Florida or anywhere in the United States, consumers can visit http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/. The online tool can measure the quality of coverage based on a street address, intersection, ZIP code or even a landmark.

For updates on the AT&T wireless network, please visit http://www.att.com/networknews.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

[Silicon Alley Insider and Research by David Chaid]