T-Mobile Adds Mobile Towers and Satellite Support for Coachella Crowds

If you are heading to Coachella and worried about whether your phone will keep working when the crowds roll in, T-Mobile says it has been getting ready for the rush. The carrier says it has added more network capacity around the festival and nearby areas so people can stay connected as traffic picks up during both weekends.
As announced by the Un-carrier, the company has deployed multiple Cells on Wheels to support busy parts of the festival footprint. Those are portable cell sites that help absorb extra demand when a normal network setup is likely to get hammered by thousands of people trying to text, post, and share their location at the same time.
T-Mobile says the support does not stop at the concert grounds. Because many festivalgoers camp or travel through nearby places where wireless coverage can be thinner, the company says T-Satellite may help with basic messaging and limited app-based features like location sharing. T-Mobile is also careful to say that satellite is a backup layer, not a replacement for the regular network on the ground.
The carrier also says staff are on the ground during the event to help maintain service for attendees, first responders, and public safety agencies. Behind the scenes, T-Mobile says it is using ongoing monitoring, its 5G network, and its Self-Organizing Network system to make adjustments as demand changes throughout the festival. It also says the same groundwork will be ready for Stagecoach later this month.