Chelsea shoots for enhanced mobile connectivity in and around Stamford Bridge

Corporate and organisational changes at Chelsea Football Club are nothing new, but hot on the heels of appointing its ninth full-time manager in the past 10 years, the club has upgraded its mobile network in and around its stadium to strengthen connectivity for customers attending fixtures and events.

The fourth most successful club in English football, Chelsea were founded in 1905 and named after the neighbouring area of its Stamford Bridge ground in West London, one of UK capital’s most historic football venues, the only home that the football club has had in its history.

Typically in English football, clubs have been formed and stadium subsequently located; Chelsea were formed to play at Stamford Bridge, which currently boasts a capacity of just over 40,000. In addition to football, the ground has hosted a variety of other sports including cricket, baseball, rugby, boxing, greyhound racing and American football.

The connectivity capacity boost – undertaken by O2 – is designed to offer a more reliable mobile experience at peak times, making it easier for fans to share video of action and use social applications, as well as use digital services such as mobile ticketing and contactless payments.

Inside the stadium, O2 has optimised the rooftop site within Stamford Bridge, boosting capacity and improving mobile performance across the stands, concourses and hospitality areas. The operator said this will ensure customers can continue to stream, share and stay connected, even when the ground is at full capacity.

Beyond the stadium footprint, new and upgraded small-cell mobile technology has been installed to improve coverage and reliability for local residents, businesses and visiting fans, helping to keep people connected as they travel to and from matches.

O2 said the upgrades are already delivering positive results on match days, with customers using more than twice as much data and enjoying a fourfold increase in speeds.

“Stamford Bridge is an iconic stadium with extremely high demand on matchdays,” said Steven Verigotta, director of mobile delivery at the operator’s parent company Virgin Media O2. “By optimising our network inside the ground and in the surrounding areas, we are giving O2 customers a more reliable mobile experience so they can enjoy every moment, from kick-off to the final whistle.”

The upgrades are part of O2’s Mobile Transformation Plan, which will see the operator invest around £700m into its mobile infrastructure to future-proof the company’s mobile network and improve connectivity in high-demand areas across the UK. In August 2025, O2 went live with its first mobile small cells in the key resorts of St Ives and Newquay in Cornwall to give businesses an improved mobile connectivity experience and faster speeds.

A month earlier, O2 also announced that it had agreed a deal with Vodafone UK to acquire 78.8MHz of mobile spectrum, bringing the operator’s total spectrum holding to approximately 30% of UK mobile spectrum and materially enhancing the company’s network position and improving connectivity in locations such as sites with crowds of people.

Data released by O2 in late 20205 showed that growing customer use of artificial intelligence (AI) alongside the continued draw of live sports and major gaming releases has resulted in record levels of data consumption across the networks of Virgin Media O2, including an 18% rise in mobile traffic.

The key theme of mobile traffic on the O2 network was that people in the UK were scrolling, chatting and embracing AI more than ever, despite nearly three-fifths of Brits (58%) saying that they began the year with a plan to reduce the time they spent on their phone.