Lucas Oil Stadium could get faster Wi-Fi

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Posting to Instagram or checking the score of another game is part of the fan experience, but the Wi-Fi inside Lucas Oil Stadium hasn’t been updated since 2012.

For fans faced with a never-ending “posting now” message on their phone, the struggle of slow Wi-Fi is real. 

Access could speed up if a $7 million amendment to the stadium’s existing Wi-Fi deal goes through. That cost would be split evenly among the Indianapolis Colts, Verizon and the Capital Improvement Board.

Right now, fans access Wi-Fi through antennas placed on the rafters and walls. These updates will change most of those antennas to what are called “under the seat solutions”: little boxes placed under selected seats throughout the stadium. The number of boxes hadn’t been decided on Monday, but fans will notice the difference. 

Barney Levengood, executive director of the Capital Improvement Board said, “We believe you’ll have better coverage, faster speeds and less dropped connections.”

So when can fans expect the faster Wi-Fi to be available?

“Before the first regular season game, and if we’re really lucky and things go well, we’ll have it done before the first pre-season game and that’s early August,” Levengood said.

Wi-Fi inside the stadium is free and despite the $7 million update, so far the plan is to keep it that way. 

Once updates to Lucas Oil are complete, the board plans to start Wi-Fi updates at nearby Indiana Convention Center.