Three improves coverage at UK festivals with temporary masts

UK operator Three is using temporary masts to improve coverage during summer festivals. The UK telco has been named official connectivity partner by Live Nation, an entertainment company that organizes a number of festivals in the country. During a media Q&A, Three showcased the infrastructure it had put in place at Wireless, a three-day music festival in north London.

Three deployed one of those temporary masts during the festival, which took place between July 7 and July 9 and had been forecast to receive 50,000 visitors. The infrastructure is provided by Ericsson and installation will be taken care of by Mitie, which Three already worked with last year. It takes around two days to install the equipment and a power generator, but it can be disassembled shortly after an event finishes.

Unlike last year, Three was able to utilize the full breadth of its spectrum during the festival – meaning the 700MHz, 800MHz, 1,400MHz, 1,800MHz and 2,100MHz bands for 4G coverage, as well as the 3.4GHz and 3.6GHz bands for 5G. While the millimeter wave (mmWave) band, which offers high capacities but poorer coverage than other 5G spectrum, would in theory be ideal for this type of event, it could not be used for spectrum availability reasons.

Another change from last year has been the increasing use of 5G by visitors. While around 45% of users were connected to 5G in 2022, Three was expecting 50% of them to connect to the newer technology this year. One factor is the growing penetration of 5G-compatible devices.

Three's chief networks officer, Iain Milligan, said during the event that the split between download and upload is around 80/20, similar to typical traffic patterns on the macro network. Three's temporary equipment forms high-density beams to provide more focused coverage.

Improving customer loyalty

The operator said that speeds would not go below 50 Mbit/s, with higher speeds available throughout most of the weekend. Paolo Pescatore, an analyst with PP Foresight, wrote on LinkedIn that upload speeds over 5G reached over 300 Mbit/s, while 4G surpassed 50 Mbit/s.

This is one of several events where Three is providing coverage. Its partnership with Live Nation will see it deploy temporary infrastructure at other events including the Parklife, Latitude and Reading festivals. To ensure coverage, it has four temporary masts available to deploy. It is also working at sports events, including the British Grand Prix – a Formula One race – at Silverstone.

Three's equipment installed at the site.
(Source: Tereza Krásová/Light Reading)

Three has upgraded some of the existing infrastructure at Silverstone but also deploys temporary masts to support the spike in demand during the race, which drew some 480,000 visitors this past weekend. This differs from other sporting events, according to Three, such as football matches, which are more frequent and better supported via upgrades to permanent infrastructure.

Three is not alone in boosting its coverage for summer festivals and sporting events. Pescatore told Light Reading via email that UK telcos have been competing with one another to provide better coverage at events, noting that this has been "an area of focus for the Three network, which has been inferior to rivals with users struggling to get a signal to even make a voice call at some of these events."

While installing such temporary infrastructure is costly, especially given that it is unlikely to generate new subscriber sign-ups, it is important for user perception, said Pescatore. "Inevitably user satisfaction will outweigh the cost of deployment and in theory increase loyalty."

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— Tereza Krásová, Associate Editor, Light Reading