INTERVIEW: Boingo Wireless CTO Derek Peterson (pictured) believes 5G will be a game changer for stadium connectivity, with its high-speed and low-latency capabilities allowing for a more immersive future fan experience.

Speaking in Los Angeles at Mobile World Congress Americas, Peterson said “the beautiful thing about 5G” is the amount of spectrum that is available on the technology and that, along with speed and latency improvements, will enable a futuristic world bringing fans closer to the action at a sports event.

“Think about a stadium where we are operating one of our networks today, you have to use your phone to be able to connect and figure out certain stuff. We are in LA and basketball player Lebron James is trying to make a throw, so we are looking at our phones to see what his stats are.”

In the future, however, Peterson talked about a world where a fan will be able to simply look at the sports star in question through a device, which could be a pair of smart glasses, and access information on statistics, heart rate, the likelihood of making a shot and how it might happen.

“5G brings immersive capability of digital transformation for everybody,” he said.

During the interview, Peterson also touched on early deployments of CBRS, which were generating “great results”, he said, as well as discussing opportunities in small cells.

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