5G coverage to be ready for Six60 show

AUCKLAND: Eden Park has not always been the happiest venue for uploading smartphone clips to Facebook — especially if there is anything close to a full house of 50,000 and many are trying to do the same.

Now, Spark says it has teamed with the trust that runs the ground to make it New Zealand’s first stadium with 5G coverage and that it will be ready for Six60’s concert tomorrow night.

Or, at least, threequarters of it will be.

It is not talking Cows (cell sites on wheels), which are typically rolled in for temporary coverage around any big event. Spark said it was a permanent upgrade to the faster mobile technology.

To use 5G, you need a 5G phone, such as one of Apple or Samsung’s latest models. Spark said 5Gcapable devices now made up a third of its handset sales as the technology made its way down the food chain. Xiaomi has claimed its $399 Redmi Note 9T 5G is the cheapest 5G model on the market.

However, Spark customers in the area around the stadium who had been waiting for 5G would probably be out of luck, at least with this segment of the rollout.

‘‘It covers only a few adjacent streets but the antennas are located inside the stadium, for the stadium, so there’s not a lot of overflow,’’ a Spark spokesman said. The firm’s 5G rollout in Auckland has so far been restricted to the CBD and parts of Devonport, Milford and Takapuna.

5G available would be available over some 75% of Eden Park tomorrow, the firm said.

That included the East and West Stands, the No 1 Field, the lower South Stand and part of the lower North Stand.

There were plans to expand this further over the coming months.