Verizon is expecting fans to use over 50 terabytes of mobile data per 90 minutes in June and July

The bread part of the "bread and circuses" motto is coming soon, starting on June 11 and it will last until July 19 – that's the period when the FIFA World Cup will be held across North America.

Americans are not the biggest football fans out there – even the game is called soccer between LA and NY. But the matches will be played in chock-full stadiums, I can tell you that much.

This will cause mobile data usage to skyrocket.

Tens of thousands of people will stream, send pictures and call

It's now less than two months until the opening day and Verizon has long been preparing for the games which will be played in host stadiums.

Attendees will probably use over 50 terabytes of data – that's just for a single stadium and for a single match (football matches last at least 90 minutes but can go up to two hours). This is the equivalent of HD video being streamed for more than three years.

This will happen because fans will take lots of pictures and videos, they'll stream parts of the game and they'll make calls during the game.

The network upgrades

Such large gatherings of people are always a challenge for telcos, and more than in one way.

Verizon has reportedly done network upgrades. More 5G spectrum has been added at host stadiums, which should boost capacity by three to five times.

What's more, the carrier has already installed thousands of antennas under seats. There are also some "massive ball-shaped antennas to provide targeted 4G and 5G coverage for fans in higher sections of the stadiums".

Verizon also relies on nearly 140 additional small cells, plus some temporary cell sites around the stadiums to enhance the coverage and the mobile network capacity.

High-capacity fiber

The extra network capacity will be used to support things like high-speed fiber and wave services that power the Broadcast Contribution Network (BCN), which delivers high-quality HD video to the International Broadcast Center (IBC). Very important for fans around the world.

There'll be private 5G networks inside stadiums, but that's not for fans per se; these are meant to support features like Lenovo's referee body cameras, giving a live view from the referee's perspective.

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