Verizon upgrades Pittsburgh 5G network before 23 April NFL draft

Verizon completed a network infrastructure upgrade in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ahead of the 2026 National Football League Draft, which starts on 23 April. The operator said the work is designed as a permanent upgrade covering Point State Park, Acrisure Stadium, and the Draft Experience zones expected to draw hundreds of thousands of fans.

Verizon said the project includes a virtualised RAN (vRAN), which is a radio access network that runs network functions in software, expanded C-Band spectrum across the event footprint, and a new in-building distributed antenna system (DAS) at Pittsburgh International Airport. For the three-day event, Verizon will also add temporary portable cell sites and dozens of small cells across the North Shore to handle peak crowd demand.

The Pittsburgh deployment continues Verizon's broader use of vRAN with suppliers including Samsung and Ericsson. The operator said vRAN gives engineers flexibility to shift capacity toward crowd hotspots in real time, while the C-Band rollout and airport DAS extend 5G coverage and capacity in high-traffic locations tied to the NFL Draft.