AT&T, which has been named the official wireline and mobility provider of the convention, forecast big spikes in mobile use at the event as different speakers take the stage. At the Republican National Convention last week, for example, AT&T said its mobile data traffic in the Tampa Bay Times Forum rose 22.3 percent as nominee Mitt Romney's wife, Ann Romney, spoke on Tuesday night. Data use was 17.78GB during that hour and text messages hit 14,535. On Wednesday night, text messages peaked at 17,292 during the hour of vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan's speech, AT&T said.

In Charlotte, AT&T has added 10 LTE DAS (distributed antenna system) deployments and 12 oDAS (outdoor distributed antenna solutions) for coverage and capacity in the metropolitan area. Distributed antennas extend the reach of a cell through extended wiring. AT&T has also added 12 permanent and 10 temporary cell sites, as well as an AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Zone along South Brevard Street, which runs between the Time Warner Cable Arena and the Charlotte Convention Center.

Sprint Nextel said on Friday it has added two macro cell sites and upgraded 18 other sites in uptown Charlotte, increasing its coverage and capacity in that area by between 25 percent and 50 percent. Sprint has also deployed three COWs at the convention sites and a DAS in each venue. The carrier said it has invested $14 million in adding coverage within and between the sites.

Verizon Wireless also has added permanent and temporary infrastructure as well as DAS deployments. The carrier also said its technicians tested Verizon signals in 75 hotels for convention-goers and added DAS and repeaters where needed. Verizon, which has a major switching center in Tampa, in the Republican convention site and prepared portable cells both to handle additional traffic and handle possible outages from Hurricane Isaac. T-Mobile USA was not immediately available for comment.

The IDG News Service