Far from the madding crowd! - couldn't send texts/emails at stadium

[Lester61]

I attended a Premiere League football match yesterday. Whilst I seemed able to receive text and emails, I couldn’t send anything despite what appeared to be a reasonable signal strength.

is there a technical reason for this? and would it affect all networks, my friend on an O2 contract experienced a similar problem and stated it happens at every match.

Rather annoying as my wife was trying to contact me and I couldn’t reply.

[MOD EDIT: Subject title changed for clarity]

[Client62]

The simple fact might be all those fiddling with their phones at the stadium are missing the football and saturating the local masts.

[Lester61]

I guess that would explain it - thanks. 

[japitts]

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@Client62 wrote:

The simple fact might be all those fiddling with their phones at the stadium are missing the football and saturating the local masts.

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Exactly this. Coverage & capacity in mobile networks are two different concepts - the coverage bars on your phone just indicate the strength of the received signal, but this has nothing to do with how much spectrum, capacity or bandwidth (depending which language you prefer) is available.

Many large stadia have internal antenna systems to provide targeted capacity additions, but this tends to apply to internationals - Twickenham, Wembley etc. Separately, O2 have some well-documented capacity issues at the moment.

I'm fortunate to attend quite a few rugby internationals and it's common for data to start slowing down about half-hour before kickoff - texts and calls still work, but data becomes "basics only" (and I'm not using O2). Put the phone down and enjoy the (expensive!!) stadium atmosphere.

[Lester61]

Tried to message just before kick off and at half time.

I did notice what looked like phone antenna on top the stand, but could have been for some other purpose.

As you say, good reason not to use the phone.

[cje85]

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@Lester61 wrote:

Tried to message just before kick off and at half time.

I did notice what looked like phone antenna on top the stand, but could have been for some other purpose.

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It may have been for a different network. EE has installed small cells to cover some stadiums but I don't think O2 has. They have a lot of problems with capacity at present.