How T-Mobile Built a Network Ready for One of the Largest Live Events in U.S. History

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 24, 2026--

This summer, one of the world’s largest sporting events brought millions of fans, international travelers and extraordinary network demand to communities across the United States.

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Months before the first match kicked off, T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) engineers, field technicians, emergency response and operations teams were preparing T-Mobile’s network not just for unprecedented demand, but for constant change. Powered by AI, T-Mobile’s Dynamic CX platform, working alongside the Self-Organizing Network (SON) and 5G Advanced capabilities, helped the network continuously anticipate changing network conditions and optimize performance throughout the tournament to help keep customers and first responders connected.

While OpenSignal recently recognized T-Mobile for delivering the strongest overall mobile experience across North America’s biggest soccer championship host cities, the bigger story is the convergence of AI and 5G Advanced that made that experience possible. Rather than simply adding capacity, AI-powered network automation helped the network adapt to changing demand in real time and deliver more consistent experiences for millions of fans. One example of that intelligence: Across 12 major fan events outside tournament venues, T-Mobile’s Dynamic CX made over 11,000 automated network optimizations as crowds moved and demand shifted.

Built for Scale

Across 11 host markets and 57 locations, including stadiums, airports, transit hubs and fan gathering locations, T-Mobile expanded network capacity, helping keep more than 2.26 million fans connected across 78 matches while carrying more than 1 petabyte (~1 PB) across all 11 U.S. host stadiums during game days throughout the tournament.

Across those stadiums, T-Mobile customers experienced average download speeds exceeding 300 Mbps. Along the way, the network connected more than 700,000 high-quality calls and helped fans share the action through tens of millions of messages, photos and videos. Macro sites, small cells, distributed antenna systems (DAS) and portable network assets worked together to help deliver a consistent customer experience wherever fans gathered.

By the Numbers:

“Preparing for this summer’s international soccer tournament meant preparing for one of the largest and most dynamic communications events ever hosted in the United States,” said Salim Kouidri, Senior Vice President, Field Engineering and Operations, T-Mobile. “Months of planning and engineering helped ensure the network was ready when millions of fans arrived.”

AI Helping the Network Stay One Step Ahead

Network readiness has always been a key differentiator for T-Mobile. By combining AI with 5G Advanced, T-Mobile is evolving how it builds and operates its network, enabling real-time automation that anticipates changing demand, continuously optimizes performance and helps deliver the exceptional experiences customers expect during the world's biggest events.

Rather than simply reacting to congestion, T-Mobile used AI-powered network automation to help stay ahead of changing demand. The Dynamic CX platform worked alongside SON and 5G Advanced capabilities to continuously analyze changing network conditions and automatically optimize performance in near real-time.

Dynamic CX executed automated network optimizations during fan events outside tournament venues, demonstrating how AI can help automatically adapt network performance during large-scale live events, delivering a more consistent customer experience during some of the busiest network moments of the summer.

“Large live events aren’t static; they’re constantly changing,” said Ankur Kapoor, Chief Network Officer, T-Mobile. “Faster speeds and greater capacity remain essential, but intelligent networks are becoming just as important. Dynamic CX and our Self-Organizing Network automatically adapted to shifting demand while our engineers monitored performance nationwide, helping deliver the reliable connectivity customers count on during some of the busiest network moments of the year.”

Supporting Those Who Keep Communities Safe

Keeping fans connected was only part of the mission.

Throughout the summer, T-Mobile’s emergency response team worked alongside public safety agencies, emergency managers and venue operators to help support communications readiness across host markets. Teams coordinated with Emergency Operations Centers, supported major venues and transportation hubs, deployed portable network assets — including COWs ( Cell on Wheels ) and SatCOLTs ( Satellite Cell on Light Trucks ) — adding additional capacity and resiliency, embedding teams at key locations and supporting public safety drone operations through dedicated connectivity in numerous host cities. Behind the scenes, teams inside T-Mobile’s Cyber Defense Center maintained heightened monitoring while network operations teams continuously optimized performance and coordinated response efforts.

Eligible first responders also benefited from T-Priority, which gives them the highest priority across every single 5G band, even in times of extreme congestion, as well as T-Satellite with Starlink, providing an added layer of resilience when terrestrial cellular coverage is unavailable.

One example came during one of the tournament’s largest watch parties in New York City’s Central Park, where T-Mobile deployed additional portable network assets and dedicated teams providing support alongside local public safety agencies for an event expected to draw more than 50,000 fans. Across the tournament, temporary COW deployments supported 50 event days, carrying nearly 290 TB of traffic at high-demand fan sites.

Championship Performance

Throughout the tournament, T-Mobile delivered the fastest speeds in field testing across every match hosted at MetLife Stadium. MetLife also hosted the tournament’s highest-traffic event, which carried 29 TB of wireless traffic. The championship match marked the tournament’s biggest network test and showcased T-Mobile’s fastest measured download and upload speeds among the national providers tested.

The Final by the Numbers

Those results reflected months of engineering preparation, AI-powered optimization and nationwide operational readiness.

Ready for Every Moment

From the opening match to the championship, T-Mobile's network, powered by AI, 5G Advanced and the expertise of its engineers and Emergency Response Team, supported one of the largest live-event communications efforts in U.S. history.

As major live events continue to grow in size and complexity — and people expect to be connected wherever they are — intelligent networks will play an increasingly important role in keeping customers, businesses and first responders connected when it matters most.

For more information on T‑Mobile’s preparedness and response capabilities, visit the company’s Emergency Response hub and follow @TMobileNews on X and Instagram.

About T-Mobile US, Inc.

As the supercharged Un-carrier, T-Mobile US, Inc. (NASDAQ: TMUS) is powered by an award-winning 5G network that connects more people, in more places, than ever before. With T-Mobile’s unique value proposition of best network, best value and best experiences, the Un-carrier is redefining connectivity and fueling competition while continuing to drive the next wave of innovation in wireless and beyond. Headquartered in Bellevue, Wash., T-Mobile provides services through its subsidiaries and operates its flagship brands, T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile and Mint Mobile. For more information, visit https://www.t‑mobile.com.

Across 11 host markets, T-Mobile expanded network capacity at 57 locations, including stadiums, airports, transit hubs and fan gathering locations. Macro sites, small cells, distributed antenna systems (DAS) and portable network assets worked together to help deliver a consistent customer experience wherever fans gathered.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A'Zariah Miles' dream of attending Howard University was a few weeks from being realized. Then it all came crashing down.

Miles, 17, of Knoxville, Tennessee, is one of more than 500 incoming first-year students at Howard who learned this week that they have been unenrolled from the prestigious, historically Black Washington, D.C., university and no longer have spots for the upcoming fall semester that begins Aug. 17.

Many have taken to social media — some in tears — to share their stories. Some posts have gone viral.

After Miles learned she had been unenrolled, her mother, Kendra Miles, said the school's automated system would not allow the family to enroll in a payment plan because the amount that was owed made them ineligible to sign up.

“I’ve reached out since we got the email (Wednesday). I've emailed, literally, everybody," Kendra Miles said. “I emailed her adviser. He responded and said it wasn't a mistake and there was nothing they could do.”

On Friday, Howard confirmed in an email that the school sent notifications to “502 first-time-in-college students whose accounts did not reflect the required enrollment and financial obligations by the previously communicated deadlines."

Starting in March, the unenrolled students began receiving specific communications about enrollment requirements, payment expectations and deadlines via email and orientation sessions, the school said.

“The university recognizes that timing differences may have occurred between when financial aid was reflected and when charges were finalized,” Howard said in the email. “Students who believe their account did not accurately reflect their financial standing at the deadline should contact the Bursar’s Office. Each case will be reviewed individually to determine whether adjustments or reinstatement are appropriate.”

Howard, one of about 100 historically Black colleges and universities in the United States, had an undergraduate enrollment last fall of about 11,000. The average annual tuition for undergraduate students living on campus is about $38,000. Housing costs are about $13,600.

Robert Kelchen, a professor of higher education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, said colleges generally try to walk a fine line in making sure students can enroll, but also making sure students pay their bills.

Howard “either had students who owed a lot of money and they didn’t think a lot of students would pay, or potentially, they have a really big incoming class and they can replace those students,” Kelchen said.

Laverne Mickens coaches students and their families on how to apply for college scholarships. Mickens said that she answered more than 400 emails Wednesday and Thursday from students and families impacted by the enrollment situation at Howard. She said most of them were strangers and they were “frantic and crying.”

“People are devastated,” said Mickens who runs The Scholarship College Mama LLC, which is not affiliated with Howard. “Parents are saying: ‘Can you help us? Howard unenrolled us.’ ”

A'Zariah Miles, who plans to major in biology, chose Howard over other schools that accepted her. Now, she is worried that it is too deep into the summer to enroll elsewhere.

“Everybody’s housing is booked, or I can’t enroll because it’s too late or I missed orientation,” she said. “I've been trying to continue to have hope with Howard, but I don't really have that much time before school starts and I don't really want to have a gap year.”

Like Miles and others, Saniah Collins learned Wednesday that she no longer was enrolled at Howard.

“My mom is part of a parent group chat,” said Collins, 17, of Atlanta. “That day we learned that a lot of students were getting unenrolled."

Collins received an email from the school Wednesday afternoon that said a July 10 deadline to pay her tuition balance or make payment arrangements had passed and the school no longer could hold her place.

But Collins said she was also told by an adviser that most of her balance for the fall semester was paid. She's not giving up.

“I worked like crazy to get into this school,” Collins said. “Howard has been my everything. My whole senior year, my whole summer I worked consistently on scholarships. We tried to make ourselves 10 steps ahead to make sure we were on the right page.”

Given that HBCUs are seen as caring and nurturing places for Black students, the mass removal of students from Howard’s fall enrollment is a bad look for the school, said Marybeth Gasman, an expert in higher education at Rutgers University.

“If it were me and it was over 500 students, I wouldn’t have done it in one day,” Gasman said. “I would have also done the due diligence of going through each one. Now, they are going to have to go back and do that.”

Williams is as member of AP’s Race & Ethnicity team. He reported from Detroit.

FILE - A sign welcomes people to the Howard University campus in Washington on July 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)