WiFi reception at the ground

[RG30]

Having been an o2 customer for 15 odd years, I always struggled on 4G. Then switched to EE in December and in fairness haven’t had an issue since. Suppose it helps when we only get 10k most weeks

[West Stand Man]

I too had problems with getting any sort of a service on 5G inside the SCL. Then I did the sums.

The best bandwidth on 5G is at high frequency. It is about 10Gbps. But the high frequency signal is very short range and is unlikely to penetrate the walls of the stadium so we are into the lower frequency signals which have less bandwidth and better range. So, if a high frequency signal could get in we'd be sharing about 10Gbps between, lets say, 10k of us. That is about 10Kbps each - which is about what you get from a poor copper wire signal out in the rural parts of the country.

Also factor in that most of the 10k spectators don't have top of the range Apple or Samsung phones and that also means that they are getting the lower frequency signal. Ergo, not all 5G signals are the same.

Even putting superfast wifi into the stadium would not, necessarily, enhance the experience because wifi is also fairly short range. It's physics....