Snowbird, located outside Salt Lake City, Utah, is known as one of the top ski resorts in North America. It’s far from a winter-only destination, though. It’s breathtaking scenery in the Wasatch mountains makes Snowbird a prime spot for year-round festivals, corporate retreats and conferences. Whether people are tracking their ski runs with mobile apps, live-Tweeting a conference event or just looking for added peace-of-mind as they explore nature, visitors demand fast, reliable connectivity—even in the mountains.
At a glance.
Location
Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah
The need.
Several years ago, we deployed 15 miles of fiber and 13 small cells in Little Cottonwood Canyon near Snowbird. Our familiarity with the area made us an ideal choice to:
- Partner with three major wireless carriers to identify coverage gaps and high-consumption locations at the resort.
- Navigate construction challenges since the work couldn’t disrupt Snowbird’s regular operations or interfere with delicate ecosystems, leaving only a small window of time to work in an already challenging location.
- Design a solution that wouldn’t detract from the natural beauty of Snowbird’s surroundings.
The solution.
- Working closely with the resort operators, wireless carriers, National Forest Service, Utah Department of Transportation and other stakeholders, we developed a plan that ensured the project’s construction was completed before ski season began.
- A highly responsive team on the ground that could handle requests in real time and make adjustments on the fly.
- Special accommodations to ensure that construction wouldn’t disrupt water and power lines, and that visible infrastructure would blend with the aesthetic of the resort.
- A small cell network consisting of five new fiber connected small cells that will support the data demands of Snowbird’s guests and employees for many years to come.
Dave F. President and General Manager, SnowbirdI found the Crown Castle team to be highly responsive, very professional, and very willing to do whatever was necessary to make it a smooth implementation here at Snowbird.
The impact.
- Snowbird’s guests have reliable connectivity that keeps them connected to their friends, loved ones, workplace and essential emergency services—no matter where they are on the mountain.
- Advanced connectivity helps maintain Snowbird’s status as one of the leading resorts in North America, helping raise the resort’s profile with significantly more people sharing their experience in real-time on social media.
- The system helps keep resort employees connected, improving responsiveness.
- The solution is designed to accommodate future increases in data demand, while supporting existing features including ski app SNOCRU and Snowbird’s proprietary ridesharing app, R.I.D.E.
- The resort has a long-term communications infrastructure partner who knows the area and can quickly respond to future needs without the need for initial onboarding.
Let’s talk about your connectivity needs.
Your business is unique—and so are your connectivity needs. With an individualized approach, we’ll show you how our infrastructure solutions will serve you today and prepare you for tomorrow.