99% communication

For whom the show, and for whom the work: the Universiade held last month in Kazan became a serious challenge for telecommunication companies who needed to provide tens of thousands of game visitors at one time with a reliable connection and uninterrupted Internet. For MegaFon, the Universiade turned out to be an interesting task, the experience of solving which will be applied in preparation for the Olympic Games in Sochi. We also want to share some conclusions and interesting observations that we made from the July Games.

Our main observation is that as the speed of the mobile Internet increases, the behavior pattern of users, who are increasingly beginning to not only download but also upload content to the network, is changing. We first noticed this at the World Cup in South Africa. At the Universiade in Kazan, this trend was confirmed: the ratio of incoming and outgoing Internet traffic is usually 90% and 10%, respectively, but at sports facilities the outgoing traffic jumped 2 times, and at the opening ceremony - 3. Reasons on the surface: more and more A number of people are not only present at events, but also share information. Leading the opening ceremony specifically urged the guests to actively share their impressions on the network, using the hashtag # kazan2013 , which after an hour of the ceremony came in first place in Russia, and by the end of it - got into the world top.

As the speed of the Internet grows, so does the amount of content that users download.
Only during the opening of the Universiade, the traffic of MegaFon subscribers amounted to 20 GB.

How we provided the infrastructure

The growth of outgoing Internet traffic has proven to be an additional challenge for our network. The outgoing signal is more "capricious." In order for the download and download processes to go at a comparable speed, you need to increase the channel for transmission - this is the task of the equipment manufacturers, as well as the issue of the additional frequency range. For the network to work without interruption, we built the communications infrastructure in the stadium with a margin.
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For example, at the largest stadium in Russia, Kazan Arena, which has a capacity of 45 thousand spectators, we installed 27 base stations, including stations inside the stadium, and built an extensive system of 145 antennas inside all rooms, including the VIP box, which paradoxically, it was not at all VIP in terms of the quality of communication before that - walls and doors reliably screened the signal.

As a result, we provided communication not only in the stands, but also inside the stadium, in the adjacent territories. Only during the opening ceremony did our subscribers make an average of 7 calls each, and SMS messages were delivered in a matter of seconds.

In total, over the time of the Universiade, MegaFon subscribers made more than 9 million calls, sent 900 thousand SMS and drove 28 terabytes of Internet traffic.

Universiade objects and volunteers

In preparation for the games, MegaFon provided voice communication and 3G / 4G mobile Internet to all key facilities, including the largest ones - the Universiade village, Kazan-Arena stadium and Lastochka aero-express route. The facilities of the Kazan MegaFon Data Processing Center (DPC) were also provided, which made it possible to ensure safe backup storage of all databases of the Universiade Directorate.

In total, due to the provision of sports, administrative and other facilities of the Universiade, the capacity of the MegaFon network in Kazan has almost doubled. Even during peak periods, call success was 99%, which is 2% higher than the standard.

A considerable part of the traffic fell on the volunteers, the connection to which was provided by MegaFon. We have connected more than 16,000 volunteers to our network, providing them with a special tariff that allows them to communicate with each other and use the mobile Internet for free. In the first week of July alone, the volunteers talked 1.6 million minutes, almost two hours for each person.

However, it is impossible to talk only about the provision of individual facilities - a full-fledged advanced communications infrastructure has been built, which will serve Tatarstan people after the Games.

The development of LTE MegaFon networks exceeds the penetration rate of devices supporting 4G

Small life hacking: switch to 4G. The development of MegaFon's LTE networks is currently exceeding the penetration rate of devices supporting 4G. Therefore, those who already have a phone with LTE, enjoy the speeds that are simply not available on 3G now. For comparison: the average "Universiade" speed in the 3G network in Kazan was 1.5-2 Mbit / s, in 4G - 17 Mbit / s. A similar situation is expected in Sochi. Those who are interested in the speed of the mobile Internet, it's time to buy smartphones with LTE - good, devices with them are already quite accessible .

Television and MegaFon

Those who watched online games also did this thanks to MegaFon. Our network was involved for the television and Internet broadcasts of the Universiade with the VGTRK channel, providing a communication channel that transmitted a signal for 7 TV channels in high definition (HDTV), including Russia 1, Russia 2, Sport, Sport 1 "and" Fight Club ". Internet traffic for online broadcasts has been assigned the highest priority. In addition, each of the communication channels had at least double redundancy.

What's next

Next in line is Sochi. Not only athletes will strive “faster, higher, further, stronger” - for the representatives of the telecom industry there are special Olympic KPIs: indicators on the success of the connection in 2G, 3G networks, the number of short calls, communication breaks. At least 98% of subscribers must successfully dial the first time. At the Universiade in Kazan, we withstood 99% of dialing, and now we expect to ensure performance better than the average recommended, already in Sochi.