Temporary Cell Towers to be Installed for All-Star Week

KANSAS CITY, Mo — Many of us text pictures and messages to friends when we’re at concerts and sporting events.  Now, some cell phone companies say they have you covered, along with the thousands of other fans, who will invade Kansas City come All-Star week.

Verizon Wireless plans to have one extra cell tower on a truck that will be mobile.  Verizon says the plan is to move the truck to where huge numbers of fans are expected, just to beef up their network coverage.

Verizon already has 4G in the metro, but the temporary tower will be at Kauffman Stadium during the All Star game and then at other big events during All-Star week.

“We definitely do see a lot of increase demand during big deal sporting events like the All-Star game or last year at the World Series in St. Louis,” said Brenda Hill, Public Relations Manager for Verizon Wireless.  “We see a big uptick in network traffic particularly in data.”

Hill says, “These days when customers go to exciting sporting events like the All Star game they like to text their friends, send picture messages, maybe post to Facebook.  They want to really share that experience while they’re there.  Our extra network resources for this event will help them do that.”

Sprint also plans to add temporary cell towers in the metro during All-Star week between July 6-10.