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AT&T makes it easier for customers to ignore the game at Fenway
By adamg on Thu, 07/28/2011 - 9:57pm
AT&T says it's dramatically boosted its wireless broadband capacity in the vicinity of Fenway Park, meaning customers are less likely to strike out while trying to make phone calls or getting online during games.
The company says it did this by adding a distributed antenna system to the area around the park.
"We want our customers to have a great network experience whatever they're doing - whether that's making a call, checking e-mail, downloading apps or surfing the Internet," Steve Krom, vice president and general manager of AT&T New England, said in a statement.
A company spokesman was unable to say exactly how much extra Pink Hat capacity the company added.
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Comments
A company spokesman was
Perhaps the funniest thing I've seen all day.
Snark all you want
but if you're an AT&T customer and actually go to more than a few games at Fenway, the previous "Bermuda Triangle of Coverage" was a major pain. Trying to meet up with fellow game attendees? No service. Want to text a friend to get peanuts as well as beer on that trip to the concession stands? No service. Need to get a call that an emergency requires you to leave the game for some reason? No service.
Until recently, entering anywhere near Fenway meant going back to pre-cell phone days. It was a strange and amazingly interesting experience!
Waaaaa, I can't function without a phone
It's called "making a plan." "Meet me in front of Bill's." "Meet me by Teddy's statue at 8." Funny how that used to work all the time before mobile technology.
You could tell that person in advance or, you know, flag down a vendor or actually get up to get it yourself. Or you could just whine about your lost right to be lazy.
That emergency will happen whether you're there or not. Amazingly, there are medical personnel, law enforcement, fire departments and, yes, somebody else at work who can handle it.
That wasn't such a bad thing. People watching the game and talking to each other? All good stuff. Now the only communication I'll have with the folks in front of my row in the bleachers is when I ask Scalper Ticket No. 1 who talked and texted through three straight innings to borrow his phone, which I'll immediately huck onto Lansdowne Street before Scalper Ticket No. 2 finally dumps his ass for ignoring her for half the game each time they come out.
Thanks, Grandpa!
You forgot two things:
"I remember when the Sox stunk! Those were the days!"
and
"YOU DARN KIDS GET OFFA MY LAWN!!"
Right
Cause if your father were to be stricken with a sudden heart attack while you were at a game, you wouldn't want to know about it or anything. Thanks for the input, unfeeling automaton!
If my father was stricken with a heart attack...
during the game, I'd be the first to know because he holds the other season ticket. Nice try.
By that logic, you should never go anywhere. Why go to Europe when your father could be stricken with a heart attack while you're there and out of range? Why go on a cruise when your father could be stricken with a heart attack while you're out at sea. When you have a relationship with your family that isn't laden with regrets, you tend to sleep a little easier.
Nice attempt at assuming I'm
Nice attempt at assuming I'm the one with "family regret issues" because I would actually want to know if something were going on with my family or people I care about. In the end, I have my priorities straight. By your own tacit admission, the same clearly cannot be said for you. Let's put it this way: if I were at a baseball game, it'd be a lot easier to get to my family if something were happening than if I were in Europe. See how shades of grey work?
As my dad always says...
"if the dog dies while I'm in Florida, don't tell me until I get back." The lesson there is that there's nothing you can do about it, so you may as well enjoy life.
I love people who think their sense of priority should be etched in stone as the basis for living. By my tacit admission, I like my dad's priorities better: Enjoy life while you have it.
You're a slave to your fear.
Boom! Ideas! Thoughts!
Boom! Ideas! Thoughts! Intelligible, relatable discourse! Human interaction! Empathic social ideals!
Sorry, what? I didn't read a word you wrote.
What up, daddy issues?
Wow, what a terrible relationship you must have with your father. Not only did you not invite him to the game, but you want him to be burdened with calling you in his dying moments. If your dad had a sudden heart attack, I'm sure he'd have bigger things on his mind than pulling you out of a game.
Sheesh, way to foist your family issues on everyone else.
I have a rebuttal for each of
I have a rebuttal for each of your points if you were being serious, but I'm not willing to assume you are. So that's that.
Whatever, dog
Don't you have a family emergency to be at?
Ahem
Some of us want to use the capacity to use the MLB At Bat app to improve our in-game experience...with things like instant replay, stat tracking, WEEI audio, etc.
MLBAM (MLB Advanced Media) is probably the best online/tech-saavy division of any of the major league sports...but the one place it was utterly useless was inside the ballpark.
Oh no! What's the point of even going to the game?
Somehow people made it through 90 years or so at Fenway without a smartphone to improve their "in-game experience." If you pay attention to the game instead of your phone, you won't need instant replay. Just wait until you leave the game to check on Jacoby Ellsbury's BABIP or WAR.
Most of the people complaining about lack of service are probably just mad you couldn't update your Facebook status to let everyone know you're at the game and they're not. And how are the douchecanoes sitting behind home plate supposed to know when to wave to the camera if nobody can call them?
And those tech-savvy geniuses at MLB somehow haven't realized it's probably a good idea to let fans post videos of game action on YouTube. That site's probably just a fad anyways.
+1
"Douchecanoes." Nice. They stay dormant all winter yet somehow manage to get active every time a decent pair of seats opens up.
??
"Douchecanoes"? I think there was a French-Canadian family down the street with that name!
That old canard?
Somehow people also made it hundreds of years without Xanax...but I don't understand how you possibly make it through the day.
The world is full of things we "used to do just fine without" and yet here we are doing even better with them.
What's it to you if I like to look up cross-statistics on the players while I keep score on my smartphone and watch the game? Hell, I'm more likely to be engaged in the action on the field if I'm willing to break out technology to give me more information about it. If you pay attention to the game instead of the "douchecanoes" behind home plate, maybe you'd have a better enjoyment of the game yourself, no?
Seriously, I love everyone here who thinks it's important to tell the rest of us how to enjoy ourselves at the ballpark....like there's only one right way to enjoy a Reese's or something.
By the way, if you go to a night game, you're a hypocrite. People were enjoying baseball games 90 years ago during the DAY at Fenway without the advantage of all them fancy stadium lights. You bastards are ruining the old-tyme feel of Fenway!
When those douchecanoes sit in front of you
yapping on their phone to nobody, then it becomes my business. Your enjoyment of the game stops where mine ends. It's right in that stadium code of conduct you're ignoring while texting and conversing elsewhere.
I'll give the expanded coverage this much: It'll make it a lot easier to text security about the chatty douchecanoes messing up the experience.
Foul!! 5 minutes for overuse!
Okay, douchecanoe was new and exciting, but you used it twice in a pretty short post pretty swiftly after its introduction. Too much overuse is wearing off the patina of shiny newness. Into the penalty box with you.
The no-data plan
Fenway Park's new-this-season "fan wifi" is WAY under-engineered and virtually useless. But hey, it's free -- so you get, as they say, what you pay for.
Awesome!
No, seriously, this is great - I can't wait to sit there and ignore the game on the one day of the year I'm at Fenway. Meanwhile, I still can't get a call on my phone while sitting in my own living room. Love you, AT&T!
I Wish Fenway Would Take An Example From AMTRAK
I'd buy season tickets in a "no cells, no texting, no radios, no TVs, special earplugs so you can hear the sounds of the game but not the hideous music played between innings section".
Or, if you want, the grumpy old farts section. I'd live with that.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Definitely noticeable
"AT&T makes it easier for customers to ignore the game at Fenway"
Yeah, because baseball is such a cavalcade of non-stop action.
This has been definitely noticeable the times I've been to Fenway in the past week or two. I typically sit in the bleachers where the league scoreboards are obscured, and it used to be that using the MLB At Bat to find the score of the Yankees, Rays or Pirates games was a lost cause. Now it almost, barely works after a few tries.
It's called ESPN, MLB Network, NESN and MLB Extra Innings
If you can't stay for the length of a game without needing another screen in front of you, perhaps you should stay home and be more connected.
It's the one thing Patriots games have over the Sox: Fewer ADD-addled flakes in the stands. The NFL Sunday Ticket and fantasy football takes these folks out of circulation and leaves seats for fans actually interested in seeing a live sporting event and savvy enough to know that when they want to see the other scores, all they have to do is get up and walk around.
It's a beautiful ballpark. No need to stay planted like a geranium in one spot with no scoreboard access.
As a season aisle ticket holder
Screw you for constantly getting up during the game just to see the scoreboard. I hate you. At least the rest of the people in my row are decent enough to come back with 2 beers so they have to get up twice as few times during the game.
If you could use your stupid smartphone instead of getting up all the time, the rest of us in your row would appreciate it. Thanks.
And I am sure they are all
And I am sure they are all thinking, "Dammit, I hate having to push past that fat guy in the aisle seat every time I want to stretch my legs."
forget in the game, I live
forget in the game, I live across the street, finally I can make a phone call in my own neighborhood during a home game!
While not being able to use
While not being able to use your phone -- at all -- at a game is obviously an inconvenience, it's also a problem if you're not at the game but just near Fenway. Imagine living or working in the vicinity of the stadium. Gods forbid you have a medical or police emergency and you can't call 911 because it's during a home game.
Finally someone gets it.
Finally someone gets it. Fenway isnt on an island, its in the middle of a busy neighborhood.
Nice timing....
The next time I'm at a Sox game I'll be using my Verizon iPhone 5 with Verizon.
AT&T, You had 4+ YEARS to fix this and it only gets 'resolved' when the masses are about to switch to Verizon for the iPhone 5? You're #lose.
Guess what?
Verizon has the same issues in the area.. Oh and ATT still outsells verizon with iphones. They just released the latest numbers this week.
Honestly...
I have ATT and never have had any problem in the Fenway area.