Verizon’s Super Bowl 5G Record Was a Stadium Special

Verizon customers used 40.32 TB of data in and around Levi’s Stadium on Super Bowl Sunday, a 6% rise the carrier billed as a 5G record. The Seattle Seahawks won Super Bowl LX there on February 8, 2026, and 59.6% of the 70,823 fans were on Verizon, the Official 5G Network of the NFL.

Median downloads hit 2.16 Gbps at kickoff and halftime, with median uploads of 461 Mbps, after years of Bay Area work. Those figures describe a bowl that had been rebuilt for one Sunday, not the network waiting outside the gates.

Verizon’s Super Bowl LX Record Was a 6% Bump

Verizon published the tally on February 9, 2026, a day after the game. Customers in and around the Santa Clara stadium moved 40.32 TB, which the company said was 6% more than the prior Super Bowl and more than 5X the 7.0 TB it recorded at Super Bowl 50 in the same building. Across San Francisco hospitality venues, a separate count came in at 39.788 TB.

The year-ago baseline was already huge. At Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, Verizon customers used 38.1 TB of data in and around the stadium, with about 53% of 65,719 attendees on the network, and a game-day median download of 1,775 Mbps. The LX bump is real. It is also the kind of step you get when last year’s show was already gigabit-class.

VERIZON DATA AT THREE SUPER BOWLS

Peak-moment medians of 2.16 Gbps down and 461 Mbps up are the numbers Verizon wants next to the word record. They sit beside a 6% traffic rise and a fan mix that was already more than half Verizon a year earlier. The company also said it finished nearly 200 individual network projects across the Bay Area and would leave a permanent 5G build for residents and businesses.

Ookla Already Had Verizon Ahead in January

Independent tests had ranked the bowl before kickoff. Ookla Speedtest Intelligence, sampling Levi’s Stadium from June 2025 through January 2026, put Verizon’s median download at 1,464.38 Mbps in January 2026, ahead of AT&T at 796.61 Mbps and T-Mobile at 768.01 Mbps. Verizon’s January median upload was 244.06 Mbps, with multi-server latency at 17 milliseconds, against 24 ms for AT&T and 34 ms for T-Mobile.

All three carriers climbed across that seven-month window as the stadium and parking lots packed in extra radios. Verizon’s January download had been 914.30 Mbps in June 2025. T-Mobile’s jumped from 132.61 Mbps, and AT&T’s from 238.56 Mbps. Uploads moved with them: T-Mobile from 18.48 Mbps to 101.04 Mbps, AT&T from 40.99 Mbps to 79.71 Mbps, Verizon from 115.98 Mbps to 244.06 Mbps.

OOKLA MEDIANS AT LEVI’S STADIUM

Ookla’s January Verizon median and Verizon’s own 2.16 Gbps figure are not the same measurement. One is a month of stadium tests. The other is a game-day median at the two loudest moments. Two days before the game, Ookla’s Speedtest account still called Verizon the stadium MVP on that January sheet.

All three carriers are bringing their A-game to Levi’s Stadium, but Verizon is looking like the MVP for Super Bowl LX. 🏈 They put up massive numbers on the stat sheet heading into Super Bowl Sunday, leading the field in January. See the full report here: https://t.co/Uj6hRL1Vjs pic.twitter.com/0ZBsLhdSmk

— Speedtest by Ookla (@Speedtest) February 7, 2026

That chart does not travel. People who live on T-Mobile still treat a Super Bowl speed board as a sideshow, because a bowl wired with millimeter-wave panels is not the network they use to check email in a grocery lot. Stadium tests keep crowning Verizon. National 5G awards keep going elsewhere on availability, and both can be true at once.

San Jose’s Median Download Sat at 167.57 Mbps

Ookla’s own warning sat in the same report. Speeds inside Levi’s Stadium are tuned for a packed bowl and “vary greatly from the network speeds that are typically experienced elsewhere.” In the second half of 2025, the median download across all carriers in nearby San Jose was 167.57 Mbps, with a median upload of 11.8 Mbps and median multi-server latency of 41 ms.

STADIUM JANUARY VS SAN JOSE H2 2025

• Verizon stadium download: 1,464.38 Mbps median at Levi’s Stadium in January 2026, per Ookla.
• San Jose download: 167.57 Mbps median across all carriers in the second half of 2025.
• San Jose upload: 11.8 Mbps median in that same citywide sample.
• San Jose latency: 41 ms median, against 17 ms for Verizon inside the stadium in January.

Millimeter-wave 5G is the band that produces those multi-gigabit samples. Ookla noted that Verizon spent billions of dollars on mmWave licenses, and that the signals have a very short range, which makes them a fit for seating bowls and parking lots and a poor fit as a city blanket. The 2.16 Gbps median at kickoff is what that kit looks like when it is aimed at 70,823 people who came to watch football.

A 2021 NFL Pact Wired 25 Stadiums

Verizon’s lead at Levi’s Stadium did not appear in January by accident. In 2021 the carrier signed a 10-year deal that named it the Official 5G Network of the NFL and an official technology partner, with 5G Ultra Wideband already live in parts of 25 stadiums. Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg tied that build to the next decade of league work.

Our longstanding relationship, and swift delivery of 5G connectivity in 25 stadiums, has created new ways to bring fans even closer to the action. As we embark on the next 10 years, our work with the NFL will continue to enhance and transform not only the fan experience, but also has the potential to improve player training and overall venue operations.

Hans Vestberg, Chairman and CEO, Verizon, 2021 NFL partnership announcement

Ookla pointed at that pact as the likely reason Verizon outran AT&T and T-Mobile on download, upload, and latency inside this venue. The deal also covers in-stadium products such as 5G Multi-View in club apps. Financial terms were not disclosed in the 2021 announcement.

A week before Super Bowl LX, Verizon said the San Francisco-market work included extra C-band and mmWave capacity, plus a dedicated C-band small cell at the stadium rideshare lane so fans could book cars on the way out. Hospitality sites on the list included the Moscone Center, the Palace of Fine Arts, convention halls, hotels, and practice sites. The Super Bowl was a week-long takeover, not a three-hour radio test.

Levi’s Stadium Ran on 7 TB a Decade Ago

The same building hosted Super Bowl 50 on February 7, 2016. Verizon transferred 7.0 TB over its dedicated network that Sunday, a figure the 2026 release used as the 5X baseline. Combined cellular traffic from Verizon, AT&T (5.2 TB), T-Mobile (2.1 TB), and Sprint (1.6 TB) reached 15.9 TB. Stadium Wi-Fi was a separate pile: 10.1 TB on the venue network, including 9.3 TB from fans.

Levi’s Stadium and the 49ers later rebuilt the in-house radio layer for a new decade of events. In August 2024, stadium management upgraded its distributed antenna system to 5G with integrator America Fujikura Ltd, part of a tech refresh aimed at Super Bowl LX and the 2026 World Cup. Verizon then added mmWave and C-band antennas through the bowl and lots on top of that DAS.

HOW THE BOWL GOT TO 2.16 GBPS

1. February 7, 2016: Super Bowl 50 at Levi’s Stadium records 7.0 TB on Verizon and 10.1 TB on stadium Wi-Fi.
2. September 9, 2021: Verizon and the NFL announce a 10-year 5G partnership covering parts of 25 stadiums.
3. August 2024: Levi’s Stadium finishes a 5G DAS upgrade with AFL for the Super Bowl and World Cup.
4. June 2025 to January 2026: Ookla records large speed gains for Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile at the venue.
5. February 8, 2026: Super Bowl LX posts 40.32 TB on Verizon and 2.16 Gbps median downloads at peak moments.

Average downloads on the four carriers at Super Bowl 50 ran about 15.1 to 23.2 Mbps. A decade later the official 5G partner was publishing multi-gigabit medians from the same address. The building did not get faster. The radios in it did.

AT&T Rolled In Trucks and a $15 Pass

AT&T and T-Mobile were not idle. Ookla said AT&T expanded macro sites and small cells, then rolled Cell on Wheels and Cell on Light Truck units under its Turbo Live program, a paid priority pass of up to $15 at 10 stadiums including Levi’s. T-Mobile’s January median download at the venue was 768.01 Mbps, still about half of Verizon’s 1,464.38 Mbps, after starting the seven-month window at 132.61 Mbps.

After the game, AT&T reported 24.4 TB of data used by its customers at Levi’s Stadium. That sits well below Verizon’s 40.32 TB in-and-around figure, and the two-carrier total of 64.72 TB is a bit under the 67 TB Verizon and AT&T combined for at Super Bowl LIX, even though LX drew 70,823 fans against 65,719 in New Orleans. More people in the building did not mean more cellular tons, once last year’s New Orleans overlay is the comparison.

WHAT EACH CARRIER BROUGHT TO LEVI’S

• Verizon: NFL 5G rights, extra mmWave and C-band in the bowl and lots, a C-band small cell at rideshare, and nearly 200 Bay Area projects.
• AT&T: DAS work, more macros and small cells, CoW and COLT trucks, and Turbo Live priority sold for up to $15.
• T-Mobile: A steep six-month speed ramp at this venue on mid-band, still third in Ookla’s January download ranking.

Verizon told customers the 200 projects would stay and help the Bay Area after the vans left. Some of that kit is permanent DAS and fiber. Some of it is the usual Super Bowl circus of extra radios aimed at one week. The 2.16 Gbps median was a game-day reading at kickoff and halftime, not a new citywide speed for San Jose.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Are Super Bowl 5G Speeds So Much Higher Than Normal 5G?

Millimeter-wave 5G, the band behind multi-gigabit stadium tests, uses wide channels with a very short range, so carriers aim it at seating bowls and lots rather than whole cities. Ookla noted that Verizon spent billions of dollars on mmWave licenses, and that those radios are a fit for crowded venues. A San Jose median download of 167.57 Mbps in late 2025 is the everyday sample sitting a few miles from the same market.

When Did Verizon Become the NFL’s Official 5G Network?

September 9, 2021, when Verizon and the league announced a 10-year partnership that also named Verizon an official technology partner. 5G Ultra Wideband was already on in parts of 25 NFL stadiums, up from 13 stadiums in 2019, and the companies did not disclose a dollar value. The pact also covers in-stadium tools such as 5G Multi-View camera angles in club apps.

How Much Wi-Fi Did Fans Use at Super Bowl 50 in the Same Stadium?

Levi’s Stadium said the Wi-Fi network transferred 10.1 TB on February 7, 2016, including 9.3 TB from fans on the free SB50FREE network, with 27,316 unique Wi-Fi users and a peak of 20,300 people online at once. That Wi-Fi pile sat beside 15.9 TB of combined cellular traffic from four carriers, a split Super Bowl LX coverage did not repeat in public Wi-Fi form.

What Is AT&T Turbo Live at Levi’s Stadium?

Turbo Live is AT&T’s paid priority service for big games and concerts, priced at up to $15, and Ookla said AT&T was rolling it out to 10 stadiums including Levi’s Stadium. It rides on top of the temporary Cell on Wheels and Cell on Light Truck units AT&T added for Super Bowl LX, a different model from Verizon’s league-wide 5G rights inside the same bowl.