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Verizon Wireless Chief Technology Officer Nicola Palmer and NFL CIO Michelle McKenna-Doyle joined Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show today to discuss the “critical role that both women have played in the NFL’s digital strategy and how this year’s Super Bowl will be more connected than ever before.” Scarborough and Brzezinski questioned how the two companies are doing just that.
Palmer first explained the network challenges that stadiums present and the network preparations that Verizon Wireless has made.
“In the case of MetLife Stadium, you have 80,000 people in one small location all trying to take a picture of the kickoff and posting it to social media. That creates a lot of noise and interference,” Palmer said. “It’s a tough environment but we know how to tackle this problem.”
She explained that Verizon Wireless put a Distributed Antenna System in the stadium, creating 500 points to the company’s network so that attendees can “talk, text and tweet wherever they are” within the stadium.
She also referenced the $400 million network investment that Verizon Wireless has made in the New York metro area – an investment that has increased capacity at and around MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., and at more than 30 venues in the vicinity, including the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., and Bryant Park and Super Bowl Boulevard in New York City.
“We needed to do that for our customers, and we’ll do it again next year,” Palmer said.
Wireless network engineers have already begun working on network enhancement plans in Glendale, Ariz. – home of Super Bowl XLIX in 2015.