Three Ireland has completed a €1.2m programme of 4G and 5G network upgrades across some of Ireland’s busiest and most demanding locations, significantly improving mobile performance for customers in high-footfall environments including major stadiums, live entertainment venues and transport hubs.
The upgrades form part of over €2 billion invested by Three Ireland to date in building and developing its business in Ireland, including €1.1 billion dedicated to upgrading and expanding network and IT infrastructure. This long-term investment has focused on delivering a high-capacity, resilient network built for data, ensuring Three can support growing demand across the economy — from everyday connectivity to some of the most challenging, high-density environments in the country.
The latest phase spans Ireland’s most significant cultural, sporting, transport and retail infrastructure, including Croke Park, Aviva Stadium, 3Arena, Dublin Airport and Dundrum Town Centre. Together, these locations represent some of the most demanding mobile environments in Ireland, with tens of thousands of users accessing services simultaneously.
At 3Arena, Ireland’s largest indoor entertainment venue with a capacity of up to 13,000, Three has upgraded both its 4G and 5G infrastructure throughout the building, improving coverage, capacity and throughput during sell-out concerts. Performance testing carried out during a fully sold-out event shows that prior to the upgrade it took an average of six seconds to upload a 5MB video, compared with approximately 2.5 seconds following the enhancements for Three customers.
National rollout across sport, entertainment, retail and transport
Beyond indoor arenas, Three has installed high-capacity mobile infrastructure at Croke Park, Ireland’s largest stadium, and Aviva Stadium, home to major international sporting fixtures and concerts, ensuring improved performance during peak demand.
More recently, Three completed in-building mobile upgrades at Dublin Airport’s Terminal 2 and Dundrum Town Centre, improving connectivity for customers travelling through Ireland’s busiest airport and visiting one of the country’s largest retail destinations. Both upgrades form part of shared, in-building mobile systems designed to support very high volumes of customers in complex, high-footfall public environments.
Supporting Ireland’s largest festivals and events
Three continues to invest heavily in its network at Electric Picnic, Ireland’s largest music festival, which attracts approximately 80,000 people over a three-day period. To support demand, Three deploys three temporary mobile masts alongside a permanent site, as well as enhanced coverage across high-traffic areas.
During last year’s festival, Three’s network supported:
160 terabytes of mobile data usage, equivalent to over 40 million photographs
1.2 million phone calls over the weekend
These figures illustrate the scale of mobile usage now associated with major live events.
Enabling Ireland’s connected economy
Three said the latest upgrades reflect the growing link between digital infrastructure and Ireland’s live events, transport and retail ecosystems, where mobile connectivity underpins payments, navigation, safety, communication and overall customer experience.
For customers, the venue and location upgrades complement Three’s broader ecosystem, including ticket presales via the Three+ app and access to the Three+ Lounge at the 3Arena.
Three Ireland said it will continue to enhance network capacity and resilience at large venues and high-footfall locations as mobile data usage and customer expectations continue to grow.
Declan Gaffney, Director of Radio Access Networks at Three Ireland
Large venues and busy public spaces place unique demands on mobile networks, as data usage continues to grow. Thousands of people in one place all want to share content, communicate, pay and stay connected at the same time. These upgrades are about making sure connectivity works when it matters most, both in everyday settings and in the places people come together in large numbers.
Declan Gaffney, Director of Radio Access Networks at Three Ireland
Connectivity is central to how people experience busy public spaces today. Whether it’s sharing a moment, navigating a journey or completing a purchase, reliable mobile performance has become part of the experience itself. We’ll continue to invest to ensure our network can meet those expectations in.
