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MLB and Qualcomm team up to improve wireless connectivity in stadiums

MLB and Qualcomm team up to improve wireless connectivity in stadiums

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In a few years, Major League Baseball stadiums could have some of the strongest cellular connectivity around. Qualcomm is working with MLB Advanced Media, the technology focused partnership of club owners, to plan and optimize mobile connectivity in the 30 club ballparks. Qualcomm is focusing on Wi-Fi, 3G, and 4G access (although it's unclear whether this will be HSPA+ or true LTE), which MLB Advanced Media intends to use to provide fans in the crowd with digital content to accompany the game.

Surveying of the ballparks will take place over the next two years, but that will only be the planning phase of MLB Advanced Media's connectivity enhancement efforts. Qualcomm will ultimately recommend a course of action for best implementing thorough connectivity in each park. Though the timeline won't have this completed until at least 2015, MLB has been quick to adopt mobile connectivity in other areas. In January, the baseball league announced a partnership with T-Mobile to move its bullpen-to-dugout connectivity from landlines to cellphones this year. Of course, it'll take more than that to outdo the high-tech infrastructure of the Barclays Center, one of the most technologically impressive stadiums in sports.