A US Major League Baseball team began trialling a private wireless network from Boingo Wireless for stadium operations, removing traffic from public mobile networks and harvesting data to improve services.

The private network at the San Diego Padres ground uses the 3.55GHz to 3.7GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum, which the US government designated as shared spectrum.

Padres staff use tablets for ticketing, and processing concession payments and other transactions over the private network.

In a press briefing, Boingo Wireless CEO Mike Finley and San Diego Padres chief Erik Greupner noted sports gambling may soon become legal in California, which would add to mobile network traffic on game days.

Around 1,000 Padres staff access the private network during games to avoid competing with spectators for bandwidth.

Boingo Wireless uses a Spectrum Access System provided by Federated Wireless to mediate the network’s use of the shared frequencies. In San Diego, these are shared with the US Navy, but Finley said the spectrum has been available as needed for the Padres staff.

Greupner and Finley are scheduled to deliver a keynote on the private network launch and the impact of 5G technologies during MWC21 Los Angeles, which opens on 26 October.