Papal appearance at Independence Hall tix gone in minutes

AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile say they will amp up already-enhanced cellphone and data capacity before Pope Francis draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to the city in three weeks.

None of the firms, however, said it experienced major issues during the weekend's Made in America festival, despite numerous complaints about service when nearly 65,000 attendees on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway vied for a signal to make calls or send text messages, tweets and Instagram postings.

Mayor Nutter called the two-day Made in America - which broke attendance records with more than 130,000 total - a rousing success at a briefing Tuesday, and said he was unaware of any major cell service issues. He referred questions about the service to the carriers.

"In the course of any day, I try to put something up on Twitter without 130,000 people around, and sometimes it goes and sometimes it doesn't. It happens," Nutter said.

The carriers said Tuesday that their enhancements - most of which were in effect for Made in America - are ongoing and will support a papal crowd that could be many times bigger than the music festival.

In addition to the $23 million the company has spent to quadruple service in the area, AT&T will add additional "cells on wheels" near the Art Museum, Logan Square, and 15th and Market and Fourth and Arch Streets, said Brandy Bell-Truskey, spokeswoman for AT&T.

Verizon and T-Mobile also said they are improving on improvements.

T-Mobile will launch a new outdoor DAS (Distributed Antenna System) from City Hall up to the Art Museum. Spokeswoman Monique McKenzie said the infrastructure would double capacity.

Verizon spokesman John O'Malley said the company - which spent about $20 million on upgrades - saw only limited service issues during the festival but will still double its capacity by adding two mobile cellular sites to the two that were in place for Made in America.

Cellphone and data service complaints were common among those who went to the festival.

James Lewis, who has AT&T service, said he and two groups of friends, all with different carriers, had issues using apps like Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, and iMessage after 4:30 p.m. on both festival days but could text message fine.

He said the issues were "all over the entire 'map' of Made in America."

- Julia Terruso and Claudia Vargas
High-priced tickets. For those who want to see Francis speak at Independence Hall - yet were not at their computers right at noon Tuesday - those tickets could be really costly.

Ten thousand free tickets to see the pope in the historic setting on Sept. 26 were gone within two minutes of the online availability's opening at noon.

Now, some who claimed those tickets are offering them for sale for as much as $250 each on Craigslist and eBay.

Additional blocks of 10,000 free tickets each will go on the online market on Wednesday on a first-come, first-served basis on the same website, www.worldmeeting2015.org/tickets. The first 10,000, for the Festival of Families on the Parkway on Sept. 26, will be offered at 4 p.m., with a limit of four per person.

Another 10,000 tickets, these for the papal Mass on the Parkway on Sept. 27, will go up at 8 p.m. Wednesday with a four-ticket limit.

"Just as we cannot control the rates at which individuals rented their homes to pilgrims, we also cannot control whether or not they decide to sell these tickets," said Ken Gavin, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Because the only identifier to the tickets is a unique bar code, Gavin said, "if the bar code is validated, the ticket will be accepted."

About 400,000 unique visitors went on the World Meeting website to try to snag the 10,000 tickets, according to the archdiocese.

No sooner had the electronic ticket window closed than tickets were being offered for sale online. On Craigslist, individual tickets were being offered for $100 to $250. One person was trying to sell four tickets for $500.

On eBay, a package of two Independence Mall tickets was posted with two SEPTA train tickets listed at $1,500.

Mayor Nutter, at a news conference Tuesday, called the papal ticket scalpers "pretty ignorant."

"Pope Francis comes to Philadelphia to speak on ... immigration and religious freedom, and you get a free ticket and then throw it up on a site and try to sell it and that's - in the neighborhood where I grew up - that's trifling, just trifling," Nutter said. "I mean, that's just wrong." - C.V. and J.T.
Performers announced. World Meeting officials announced Tuesday the lineup of performers for the pope's appearance at Independence Hall.

The Philly Pops Festival Brass will perform Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" as the pope arrives on stage to make his address.

Eight groups, reflecting the city's "immigrant heritage and cultural diversity," will perform before the pope's arrival. They are:

El Mariachi Flores, a regionally based mariachi band with roots in Mexico City.

Kùlú Mèlé African Dance and Drum Ensemble.

Mystic Warriors, an Andean music group.

Pablo Batista and the Mambo Syndicate, a salsa group.

Philadelphia Argentine Tango School, representing the music and dance of the pope's native Argentina.

Polish American Cultural Center, which will have a group of 20 students, ages 10 to 16, who attend St. Adalbert Polish Language School, performing traditional Polish dances.

Tibetan Association of Philadelphia, which will perform traditional Tibetan dances - a month in advance of the Dalai Lama's visit to the city.

The Vietnamese Fan Dancers of Rowan University. - C.V

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For full coverage of the pope's visit, go to philly.com/popeEndText

215-854-5520@InqCVargas

Inquirer staff writer Jack Tomczuk contributed to this article.