Nokia Packages Up In-Venue Mobile Broadband Solution

People want to use their smartphones all the time, whether they’re in a plane, train, or automobile, or at home, work, or play. That, and the fact that mobile devices are yet another way for businesses to reach out and touch their customers, is leading more public venues to provide mobile broadband to their visitors.

Indeed, venue operators and their communication service provider partners can leverage mobile networks to do everything from enabling motor speedway visitors to use their phones to watch cars on the far side of the track, baseball fans to remotely order caps and concessions from the venue vendors, and airport guests and concert goers to check expected wait times at security, bathrooms, and food booths.

Beyond simply providing additional services and capabilities via mobile broadband, however, venue operators can use technology to keep attendees at an event longer or direct them to a particular location or promotion within the venue.

In some cases businesses and venue management needs to work with a long list of suppliers to find and put together all the pieces to make that happen. And when they do, the solutions don’t always stand up to users’ demanding quality of service expectations.

But some suppliers, like Nokia Networks, now offer packaged solutions for mobile broadband at specific venues, and they bring effective indoor coverage and fast return on investment along from the ride. Nokia calls this offering its Zone applications solution, and it includes core network APIs, high-performance voice and data connectivity using LTE and small cells, and 802.11ac Wi-Fi functionality. It also employs Nokia’s Mobile Edge Computing for latency-sensitive and bandwidth-loving applications.

“A range of exciting applications are available for fast deployment, such as live video streaming using LTE. And by live I mean less than 1s between screen and reality, a delay that would be unnoticeable to most subscribers,” said Amit Gurtu, product marketing manager of Nokia Networks, in a recent blog.