Comcast announced this morning that it has been selected by the Washington Nationals for a multiyear contract to deliver Gigabit ethernet and expanded WiFi availability within Nationals Park.
“When we first opened the ballpark in March 2008, our fans were not utilizing our WiFi network to the extent that they do now during an average game, which is why we needed to increase the bandwidth supporting our Internet service,” Nationals Chief Technical Officer Nationals Jason Zachariah said via press release. “We are always looking for ways to enhance the ballpark experience for our guests, and we look forward to working with Comcast in the coming years to help us keep pace as our technology demands evolve.”
Comcast suggested that the upgrade is complete, and that Nationals Park “now has enough capacity to allow thousands of fans to order food and beverages via a website from their wireless devices.”
In related news, long-suffering AT&T customers have a new option for voicing their concerns about spotty service during heavily attended games. Their upgraded app, AT&T Mark the Spot now can be used to mark specific locations and times of signal failure. The app saves the information and transmits it to AT&T later when a data signal is recovered.
I was at Friday’s game, the mobile food link would not come up, and it was nearly impossible to check FB throughout the game. The AT&T app may not work if one can’t get a signal to begin with.
I’ve used the new app when I couldn’t get an AT&T data signal at Nats Park. It saved the report, then confirmed transmission later, after the game.
I used the AT&T app quite a bit last season, and I’m happy to continue letting them know where service is poor. But what good does it do if the service doesn’t actually improve?