LongFi Connect: better cell phone service for Easton's biggest festivals.
The City of Easton, Pennsylvania, on the Wi-Fi already in place at Centre Square. Live since August 2025.Easton's downtown festivals draw crowds far larger than the cellular network around them was built to carry. LongFi Connect runs on the city's existing Wi-Fi at The Circle in Centre Square and connects phones automatically, with no passwords and no new hardware.
“I've been living in Easton for years and phone connectivity has always been a challenge during the big festivals. Whether messaging the people you came with, and festival vendors using the cell towers for point of sale would slow things down. That's why I connected LongFi Solutions to the city.Chuck MakaturaOwner of Skeggy's Axe House and Easton resident
The downtown cell network cannot keep up with festival crowds.
When the streets fill, residents and visitors cannot get texts out, families lose track of each other in the crowd, and calls will not connect.
Easton sits at the confluence of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers, a historic downtown that packs tens of thousands into a few walkable blocks. The introduction came from inside the community. Chuck Makatura, a lifelong local and owner of Skeggy's Axe House downtown, lived the problem as a resident and as a business owner, and connected LongFi Solutions with the City of Easton.
Dead texts and dropped calls
When the crowd peaks, messages will not send and calls will not connect.
Families lose each other
Parents and kids cannot regroup when the square is shoulder to shoulder.
Merchant payments slow
Card readers and point of sale systems on cellular slow or time out when downtown is busiest.
Per event fixes do not scale
The festivals return year after year, so downtown needs infrastructure that is ready each time.
LongFi Connect uses the Wi-Fi Easton already has at Centre Square to improve cell phone service.
LongFi enabled LongFi Connect on the city's existing Wi-Fi at The Circle in Centre Square. When someone on a participating carrier walks into the coverage area, the phone authenticates on its own using Passpoint, with no password, no splash page, and no app to download.
- Runs on the Wi-Fi in place. A configuration on the network the city already owns at Centre Square.
- Connects on the SIM. Phones attach on their own, with no app, no password, and no portal login.
- A Passpoint configuration. LongFi Connect uses Passpoint, or Hotspot 2.0, and the carrier credentials already on the device.
- Tuned for the crowd. Set for crowd density rather than everyday load, holding voice grade quality when the streets fill.
- Secure by design. Guest traffic is authenticated, encrypted, and kept apart from city systems.
What changed once LongFi Connect went live.
Residents and visitors found each other and stayed in touch, even shoulder to shoulder.
Card readers and point of sale kept moving for merchants and vendors when downtown was busiest.
People filmed and posted from the festival, on cell service that stayed up in the crowd.
From the fall festivals to the Winter Village holiday market, the network held through the seasons.
A full festival season, carried without the failures.
- 658,349 device connections since going live on August 13, 2025, made automatically with no guest action.
- 8,385 GB of mobile data moved off the macro cellular network, giving it breathing room for everyone else.
- 6,322 connections on the busiest single day, and 191.6 GB carried on the peak data day, with usage spiking reliably on festival weekends.
- 3.8x typical weekend traffic during PA Bacon Fest, with 5,579 connections and 73 GB on opening day alone, handled without degradation.
- The pattern holds all year, with weekend traffic about 102 percent above weekday levels, Garlic Fest weekend near three times typical traffic, and the four Winter Village weekends around double through the holidays.
“Phones work better when LongFi Connect is live. People messaging their friends, share what they're doing, and the businesses downtown keep ringing up sales on the weekends that matter most to us.”Chuck MakaturaSkeggy’s Axe House
Figures reflect LongFi Connect usage at the City of Easton deployment from August 13, 2025 through July 21, 2026.
Keep your downtown connected on festival days.
Easton shows what LongFi Connect looks like at the scale of a downtown, not a single venue. With Centre Square proven, the city has a ready template for extending coverage deeper into downtown along the routes the festivals follow. A short conversation is enough to see the fit.
Works with business grade Wi-Fi, such as Cisco, Meraki, Aruba, or comparable, and supports major mobile carriers.