I've watched hundreds of Dallas Cowboys games in my life. Thursdays, Sundays, Mondays and the occasional Wednesday and Saturday as well, I'm planted to watch this team. That includes a birthday gift from my now-wife when we were dating in Atlanta to see them live for the first time at Mercedes Benz Stadium. But I'd never made the pilgrimage to Dallas and Arlington to step foot inside AT&T Stadium. Or, rather, I hadn't made that pilgrimage until the Cowboys' home opener against the Washington Commanders.
To show off the connectivity upgrades at AT&T Stadium, AT&T invited me and several other content creators to Dallas to not only watch the Cowboys, but to also experience how the fan experience of watching the Cowboys has been upgraded.
And in no way was I let down by any of it — including by the Cowboys in their 37-20 victory.
Cowboys have upgraded connectivity to be able to handle fans' growing data needs
It's a strange feeling stepping into a concourse where you've seen hundreds and hundreds of people rushing into the stadium before a Cowboys game and having nothing but a small group around you. It almost feels as if you're part of some secret or exclusive club. It wasn't necessarily that, though. The only club we were in was being part of the fans inside AT&T Stadium that would get to experience the upgrades around the venue — we were just getting one of the first looks.
The upgrades at AT&T Stadium started well before the Cowboys home opener, though. With the World Cup making a stop in the summer in Dallas, everyone from the organization and AT&T knew they had to have everything in order so fans could be connected.
AT&T and the Cowboys did so successfully for the World Cup and set up an unparalleled fan experienced inside the stadium.
"Towards the end of the World Cup, it just became a joke of, "'We're not even going to call on Dallas" because it just went that smooth," Dallas Cowboys chief information officer Matt Messick said.
And it went so smooth because of all of the upgrades that AT&T has helped bring to stadium and Cowboys fans. AT&T's SVP of Global Enterprise Solutions, Zee Hassain, said that the average 90,000 fans inside AT&T Stadium for home games used an average of 22 terabytes of data. For the home opener on that Sunday, fans used 28.69 TB of data. Being able to not only handle that data but to make sure every fans' experience is seamless doesn't come without some serious hardware.
The Cowboys have that too.
AT&T Stadium has 5G and Wi-Fi connection that's hard to believe
Whether it was touring the stadium or during the game when tens of thousands of fans were screaming and also trying to use their own phones and data, the connection inside AT&T was absolutely flawless. The AT&T Turbo Live, which has newly been introduced as a premium service for fans in the stadium (even if you have a different carrier than AT&T), mgiht've worked even better than my home internet.
I was checking fantasy scores, uploading videos to social media, responding to my wife, and doing whatever I needed to on my phone with ease. That's not a common experience when you're talking about a stadium and a crowd of that size. When Jayden Daniels suffered his elbow injury at the end of the first half and everyone in the stadium was reacting both live and on their phones, I was still even able to upload a video of the cart coming out as an update on social media with no issues. AT&T Stadium has built in the infrastructure to do that.
There are more than 261 miles of fiber running through AT&T Stadium to help fans stay connected. The Distributed Antenna System used within the stadium is large enough to power a town the size of Plano, TX, and helps power the 5G cellular data connectivity in and around the stadium. There are nearly 3,000 Wi-Fi access points within the stadium. It's truly it's own world in terms of what's capable with all of these features.
What's even more impressive is that it doesn't stop there. AT&T and the Cowboys are also partnered in improving the fan experience on a more granular level than that. Yes, it's great to be connected, but you also want to enjoy your time at the stadium. Throughout the concourses, there are several interactive elements that allow you to do just that.
On the fun side of things, AT&T's Pose with the Pros allows for a virtual photo-op with Dallas Cowboys legends, both current and past, as well as with the Cowboys Cheerleaders. It's an easy keepsake that fans can't help but enjoy. And on top of that, Reception Connection is a competitive game within the stadium that allows fans to enter their information and virtually catch passes from Dak Prescott with timing mechanics and mirroring in front of cameras. There is also a leaderboard and the fan on top of that after entering their info will receive a prize: An autographed Dak Prescott mini helmet.
But maybe the most important thing that they offer is AT&T Wayfinding.
Anywhere you want to go inside AT&T Stadium, Wayfinding shows the way
As a Cowboys fan, I couldn't go to Dallas and the home opener without grabbing some merch (and shout out to the awesome throwback t-shirt and hat I snagged). The only problem with that is I'm most definitely directionally challenged. That's where AT&T Wayfinding and the connectivity within AT&T Stadium were extremely helpful.
Wherever you want to go while you're at a Cowboys game, all you need to do is ask. Available both at stand-ups within concourses or on your phone, you can search for anything you're looking for: concessions, pro shops, restrooms, anything. Wayfinder not only shows you all of the options and sorts them by the closest to you, but you then are given step-by-step directions to be able to get there.
Let me tell you, with the route I had to take to get to the main pro shop at AT&T Stadium, had I been left to just wander around or follow a map by myself, I might've been lost for the group. Instead, I left to go buy merch about 15 minutes before kickoff. I had time to get the pro shop, browse, pay and make it back to our seats by the opening kickoff. It made it that much of a breeze.
The Cowboys are hoping the football matches the experience
The experience from a connectivity and fan experience standpoint at AT&T Stadium couldn't have been better. The upgrades made to the network within the stadium truly made for one of the most seamless days using my phone and staying connected that I've ever had in such an environment. It was unfamiliar how easy everything was as a result of what they've done within the stadium.
But as a Cowboys fan, I'd be lying if I told you that the Cowboys walloping the Commanders wasn't the best part of the day.
When I spoke with Zee Hassain, he'd met with Jerry Jones and other brand partners earlier in the day. Just about every week of the 2026 season, Jones has talked about the team on the field being close and the front office being aggressive to help that. He wants to put a premier product on the field and bring home a Super Bowl. But just as much as that, he also wants to make sure that the fans and brands associated with the Cowboys are getting everything and more that they could want out of the experience.
"The second thing he said was, 'Look, you expect a certain level of outcomes when you associate with the Cowboys,'" Hassain said. "'And it's my job to make sure that we continue to deliver on that promise and experience.' So I think he's just really involved around making sure that the Cowboys are the premier experience, no matter what they do. It's up to the team to constantly keep pushing the envelope. He leans on us a lot as partners and he pushes us all to make sure that everything that we deliever her is really differentiated."
It was unequivocally a different experience than any stadium. Sure, I was in my own little world soaking in everything that a Cowboys fan dreams of seeing. But I was also fully connected to the outside world as well to be able to share it all thanks to what's been upgraded.
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