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Comment by sddfd | Hacker News Reader

Niantic seems to have expertise in Mobile Gaming from ingress. Which other company has?

If your comment is based on this event, it seems unfair: Who else has successfully done an event with similar bandwidth requirements before? Also, my understanding is that the cellular network is the problem, but you might correct me if I'm wrong.

Besides, Blizzard had spectacular problems in the past with WOW launch events, simply because no one had ever done something of that /scale/ before.

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It sounds like they planned an event for 20k people without telling mobile networks they are doing it. For festivals mobile networks usually deploy extra capacity to handle larger than usual number of people. It sounds like this could be handled by large number of local WiFi spots as well.

Or the mobile networks fucked up and underestimated the network load.

Yeah, I would have gone with the wifi option as well if I was setting up an event like this.

How do you just "deploy extra capacity"? Do they install new antennas just for an event?

Deployment of cell sites at events like stadiums for sporting events and outdoor music festivals is pretty common for years and years. Unless you're a hermit you almost have certainly seen a COW at one point or another. Cf Wikipedia mobile cell sites, especially COW.

I've seen them around alright, just not realized how common or easy-to-set-up they might be for an event like this, or how they work from an inter-provider standpoint. Do they not cost a whole ton for the organization setting up the event, and wouldn't every provider (T-Mobile, AT&T, etc.) be required to set one up? It seems like such a massive headache and cost for something like a Pokemon-catching crowd that might not even generate much revenue(?) that I'm confused how everyone is saying "just deploy extra capacity". Like do providers just follow crowded events for free and put antennas wherever people are as if it's no big deal?

20k is actually not that many people as far as these things go. Over 50k in that confined stadium area and you really start hitting some hard limits with current cell tech. 20k should have been no problem with careful planning.

>20k is actually not that many people as far as these things go

20k people in close proximity uploading and downloading constantly without breaks? What specific event is that comparable to? Music festivals don't have all attendees constantly using their data network.

The point is, there are many places in the world that draw large crowds into a tiny area on a weekly basis, and the cell networks will fall over and die without special measures.

Did they do anything at all to anticipate that load? It seems not. "We tried and failed" is understandable, but simply inviting 20k people and expecting them to play a mobile game is monumentally foolish.

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