Each year, as the Super Bowl approaches, all three major US carriers announce their latest upgrades to ensure the stadium hosting the Big Game has enough high-speed network capacity to handle the hordes of fans attending with a smartphone in every pocket. But every year, some are left complaining that they couldn’t post their bragging rights live because everyone was trying to send messages, photos and videos all at the same time.

Just four months after this year’s Super Bowl, the game’s site in Santa Clara, California, was transformed — its Levi’s logo famously covered up — to host several FIFA World Cup games. For the Paraguay vs. Australia matchup on June 25, it was the fifth time in two weeks that the nearly 69,000-seat arena was packed with fans eager to watch the world’s biggest soccer tournament.

The matches have drawn millions more eyeballs than the annual NFL championship, from viewers at home to the thousands of people who have come from all over the world to watch them live — and who will all be reaching for their phones at the same time when their team sings the national anthem or scores a goal.

The San Francisco Bay Area Stadium is not alone. This World Cup is being played out across three countries for the first time ever — Canada, Mexico and the United States — so there are plenty of chances for host stadiums to fail to deliver enough cell service to the tens of thousands of people traveling to matches every day.

I looked into what each carrier did to improve its network ahead of the World Cup at the 11 US host stadiums and stress-tested the networks in the Bay Area to see if they would hold up to the strain on game day. 

Putting the networks to the test at a World Cup match

While my eyes were on my beloved Socceroos the whole match, I was also focused on how much of the game I could capture on my phone and send to friends and family watching at home. Using a Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus on Verizon, a Motorola Razr connected to T-Mobile via Mint Mobile and an iPhone 17 Pro Max connected to AT&T’s new Turbo Live offering, I and a couple of CNET colleagues ran various network tests during the Paraguay vs. Australia match on June 25. 

With 68,827 fans present at the match, many of them with more than one device — we had six phones between three of us — that’s a lot of people trying to use the networks at once.

Sending photos and videos

Using my Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus on the Verizon network, I sent pictures and videos to CNET Mobile Managing Editor David Lumb during the game. Photos arrived on his phone within seconds, while a 23-second video took just under a minute to go through. 

Several of us attending the match also used RCS messaging and WhatsApp to send each other photos we took together across Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T. Everything was sent and delivered within a minute. 

Video calls

The tricky FIFA lottery system and subsequent resale market have made World Cup tickets incredibly expensive, meaning there are likely a bunch of people you’d love to video call while at the game if they couldn’t make it there. I made several video calls throughout the match, including one to Sydney, Australia, right before it started; one to Los Angeles at halftime; one to Germany during play; and one to Melbourne, Australia, as the match ended. 

Apart from the LA call (which we determined was due to the poor cellphone reception in LA traffic rather than on my end at the stadium), all had crystal-clear video. Hearing the sound of the calls over the roar of the crowd was a different matter, but the Verizon network held up for video.

AT&T Turbo Live

AT&T’s new Turbo Live service allows you to sign up for a one-time pass that gives you priority access to a higher-speed network during events and concerts. Using an iPhone 17 Pro Max, we signed up for Turbo Live, and CNET Director of Content Patrick Holland clocked speeds of 1690Mbps download and 92.4Mbps upload.

The lightning-fast download speed was more than double what I experienced on my Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus on Verizon, which maxed out at around 714Mbps. Senior Writer Abrar Al-Heeti recorded a speed test of just 3.77Mbps using a Motorola Razr Fold with a Mint Mobile eSIM (an MVNO that uses the T-Mobile network), although Ookla noted that she was using the Frontier network at the time of the speed test.

However, setting up access to Turbo Live is a lengthy, multistep process that took at least 10 minutes during the game — including finding your event on the Turbo Live site to see if the service is available, checking your phone to see if you’re eligible, paying the one-time fee ($12 for the match we attended), activating the eSIM, setting your default line and selecting the eSIM as your primary network in your settings. It’s a time-consuming process that requires your full attention, so our main takeaway is that you pay for it and set it up well in advance. We saw events listed on the Turbo Live site that are weeks away.

Posting photos and videos to social media

Posting Stories to Instagram was a smooth, fast process. Photos went up in moments using both the Verizon and T-Mobile networks.

Overall, the networks held up, and I had more than enough signal to send photos and video clips out to friends and family as well as post to social media. Mobile bandwidth even sustained my video calls across continents and oceans, and I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to send dispatches from my seat all over the world despite sitting alongside nearly 69,000 other fans doing the same thing. 

I reached out to each carrier to learn how they updated their stadium networks to handle the data fans need to share their World Cup experience across the globe.

How the carriers improved their networks for the FIFA World Cup

Verizon

Verizon, the official carrier sponsor of the World Cup, installed thousands of antennas under seats, added more 5G spectrum to boost capacity at all US World Cup host stadiums and installed huge ball-shaped antennas to provide 4G and 5G coverage in the nosebleed seats.

Verizon says it expects people to use more than 50 terabytes of data per game at each stadium.

“That’s equivalent to streaming every movie ever made on Netflix simultaneously over a single 90-minute game,” Abraham Arencibia, Verizon’s vice president of technology and product development, told me. “To handle that surge in wireless network traffic, we’ve boosted capacity three to five times across all US host stadiums. We also added 80,000 miles of fiber to deliver every camera feed from every match to FIFA’s International Broadcast Center.”

Verizon additionally deployed almost 150 small cells and temporary cell sites to boost reception in areas that’ll be impacted by the tens of thousands of fans who will be mass-transiting to stadiums or hosting watch parties nearby. The carrier is also providing private 5G networks for the Lenovo referee-view body cameras.

AT&T

Ahead of the World Cup, AT&T also upgraded its network across all 11 US host stadiums, with “more than 2,000 enhancements across surrounding markets.” Those upgrades are designed to handle the increased network demand, which it will manage via on-site support teams.

At the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, AT&T increased capacity and coverage inside the stadium as well as at nearby airports, hotels and downtown areas.

“Events like these put a big demand on connectivity,” Robert Walters, AT&T senior vice president of network planning, told me. “We’ve strengthened our network in host cities to deliver reliable performance for fans, while ensuring first responders have the dedicated, priority communication they rely on through FirstNet.” 

FirstNet — the First Responder Network Authority — is a partnership between AT&T and the federal government to provide a network across the US that’s specifically for first responders and safety agencies. Unlike its commercial network, AT&T says FirstNet will never slow down, even during mass crowd events like the World Cup. FirstNet personnel are on the ground at every match, and AT&T has deployed cell trailers to be on standby to ensure this.

AT&T also has Turbo Live available at 10 of the 11 US host stadiums, including the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium. Turbo Live allows not only AT&T customers but also those on Verizon and T-Mobile plans to pay a one-time access fee of between $5 and $15 to use AT&T’s priority network. You must have a 5G-capable phone that isn’t locked by a carrier and has an open eSIM slot to use it.

T-Mobile

While T-Mobile has talked about expanding its network capacity across stadiums, airports, public transportation, fan zones and surrounding areas for the event, one of its main talking points has been T-Mobile Dynamic CX, an AI-powered system that adapts and optimizes the network in real time as demand changes.

“Dynamic CX, an AI-powered capability designed to help the network adapt in near real time as crowds gather and move through event areas, is being used in select high-traffic locations, including fan events and transportation hubs,” T-Mobile said.

This would include watch parties and local events around the World Cup that don’t happen inside stadiums. 

T-Mobile told me that Dynamix CX is working well so far — it helped manage network demand during the first two matches in Seattle, where more than 630,000 unique devices were present, maintaining a network accessibility rate of 99%.

At the San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, T-Mobile upgraded venue connectivity infrastructure, as well as expanding 5G coverage around the area and transportation systems. Like Verizon and AT&T, T-Mobile has support teams on the ground at matches to monitor the network.

Phone tips for attending a World Cup match

Having run all these battery-intensive phone tests, my number one piece of advice is to bring a portable battery pack and a charging cable.

Some other tips if you’re attending a match:

• Use your phone’s virtual wallet for your game tickets, transport apps and in-stadium purchases.
• Ensure your phone software and apps are updated.
• Use 5G networks rather than stadium Wi-Fi for faster speeds.
• Sign up for AT&T Turbo Live in advance if you want the fastest network possible.

Corinne Reichert attended the World Cup match as a guest of Motorola/Lenovo. The judgments and opinions of CNET are our own.