Music To Their Ears

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For most of the year, the desert town of Indio has limited cell phone reception. But each spring, when more than 80,000 people flock to the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, so, too, do semitrailers full of equipment that allow the L.A. mobility team for AT&T to set up temporary coverage.

During this year’s two-weekend concert series, which ended April 22, AT&T also created a Wi-Fi hot spot that spanned the equivalent of 45 football fields. It’s a service provided as part of AT&T customers’ monthly data plans. The Coachella setup requires six months of planning.

AT&T sets up such coverage at other events, too, such as the Super Bowl, and will also do so when natural disaster strikes.

Coachella concertgoers used their phones for millions of uploads and downloads, and to send millions of text messages.

“The average Coachella-going customer is a high-data user, is into music and is probably that younger demographic who mobilizes everything on their phone,” said spokeswoman Georgia Taylor, who wouldn’t disclose costs.

The Coachella site also hosts Stagecoach Music Festival, a three-day country music concert series scheduled for April 27-29. Because of the demand from the weekend concerts, AT&T has started looking into installing more permanent equipment in Indio.

“We have to keep our customers connected, that’s our goal,” Taylor said.

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