Mobile network capacity has been increased fourfold at two of Lithuania’s largest event venues. Bitė Lietuva says Ericsson Massive MIMO antennas installed at Vingis Park in Vilnius and Darius and Girėnas Stadium in Kaunas can support up to 15,000 people actively using mobile services at the same time.

The difference should be most noticeable during major concerts, when thousands of phones are simultaneously uploading photographs, sharing videos or streaming live. According to the company, the equipment is intended to reduce the mobile internet congestion that can occur at these peak moments.

At a mass event, mobile service quality depends on more than signal strength or the distance to the nearest communications tower. Internet access can slow down even in an area with good coverage if tens of thousands of devices connect to the same infrastructure simultaneously.

The new antennas are designed to increase network capacity: the infrastructure’s ability to process more active connections at once. Arūnas Mickevičius, chief executive of Bitė Lietuva, said the solution deployed at Vingis Park and Darius and Girėnas Stadium had increased the previous capacity fourfold.

The figure of up to 15,000 active users is not a limit on total event attendance. Some visitors may not be using their phones at a given moment, while others may only be receiving notifications. Video uploads, live streams and other data-intensive services create the greatest load.

The infrastructure was tested on a large scale during the Lithuanian Schoolchildren’s Song Festival at Vingis Park, a major open-air venue in the capital. Bitė customers transferred more than 4 terabytes of mobile data during the event.

The company said the network retained spare capacity even during the largest surge in attendance. However, the announcement did not provide independent test results, average upload or download speeds, or comparable data from earlier events. A fourfold increase in network capacity therefore should not be interpreted as internet service becoming four times faster on every phone.

For visitors, the expected practical effect is more modest: photographs and videos should be less likely to stall while uploading at peak times, and online services should respond more quickly. Individual performance will still depend on attendance, how people use the network, the capabilities of their phones and which mobile operator they use.

Massive MIMO is being used in locations where a large number of active devices are concentrated within a relatively small area. The antennas distribute network resources more efficiently and help maintain data transmission when many requests arrive simultaneously.

This differs from constructing another communications tower to extend geographical coverage. Vingis Park and Darius and Girėnas Stadium already have mobile signals, but during the largest concerts the main constraint is the number of devices requiring service rather than whether the signal reaches the venue.

The permanent equipment is intended for venues that regularly host events attracting tens of thousands of people. It is expected to support mobile traffic during the Pitbull concert scheduled at Darius and Girėnas Stadium in late July and Jessica Shy’s performances at Vingis Park in late August.

The smart antennas do not remove the need to plan separately for each mass event. When exceptionally large crowds are expected, Bitė can also install a temporary mobile communications station to provide additional capacity at a specific location.

Such stations can be used at concerts, festivals and other events where demand exceeds the area’s normal network load. One was used at the Aurum 1006 km race in Palanga, a resort city on Lithuania’s Baltic coast. At the Vilnius and Kaunas venues, however, the permanently installed Massive MIMO antennas will now provide the main additional capacity.

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Techniniai rodikliai ir renginių informacija sutikrinti su BNS paskelbtu „Bitė Lietuva“ pranešimu, bendrovės teiginius aiškiai atskiriant nuo nepriklausomų matavimų.

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Sutikrintos įrangos diegimo vietos Vilniuje ir Kaune.
Patikrinti keturgubos talpos, 15 tūkst. aktyvių naudotojų ir 4 TB duomenų rodikliai.
Pažymėta, kad šaltinyje nepateikta nepriklausomų greičio matavimų.
Sutikrinti pranešime įvardyti būsimi koncertai ir mobiliosios stoties naudojimas Palangoje…

SourceBNS / „Bitė Lietuva“ pranešimas žiniasklaidai

ScopeLietuva

Updated2026-07-28 09:18

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