Fans walk around outside the arena prior in Game Four of the 2016 NHL Stanley Cup Final between the San Jose Sharks and the Pittsburgh Penguins at SAP Center on Jun. 6, 2016. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
San Jose has enhanced its free public Wi-Fi in conjunction with a pair of major local sporting events. Nearby Santa Clara recently hosted the 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship game at Levi’s Stadium, and San Jose’s SAP Center will hold the NHL All-Star Game on Jan. 26.
The southern Bay Area city created a public-private partnership with SmartWAVE Technologies and Ruckus Wireless to create the Wickedly Fast Wi-Fi network that covers a large swath of downtown. A press release about the public wireless network reported that speeds of up to 300 megabytes per second were recorded at Cesar Chavez Park in the weekend prior to Clemson’s victory over Alabama.
San Jose is also a pilot site for Facebook’s Terragraph technology, which purports to enhance the speed of Wi-Fi particularly in dense urban areas.
SportTechie Takeaway
Every new sports venue touts the building’s wireless accessibility and speed in recognition of the modern needs of connected fans. Given the downtown locations of many stadiums and arenas, boosting Wi-Fi coverage beyond the walls of the building and into the neighborhoods where fans congregate before and after the event is a natural extension of that effort.
