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Cellphone Networks Survive Inauguration, Mostly

Posted by timothy on from the ever-more-robust dept.

nandemoari writes "Everybody was talking about Barack Obama's inauguration on Tuesday morning, and it showed. According to reports, a number of mobile phone networks faced overload circumstances that day until late afternoon, when the chat sessions finally began to dissipate. Having the most trouble that morning appears to have been T-Mobile, and AT&T also had some difficulty that morning."

7 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Shhh! by RulerOf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Be vewy vewy quiet!

    If they don't ask why the service isn't getting better but the prices are getting higher, they'll never suspect that we'd rather hoard cash instead of reinvesting it! Teeheeheehee!

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    Sincerely,
    That company that would charge you $5000 to send an MP3 over SMS

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    Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
  2. Re:I would say mitigated by iamhigh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If they had survived service would not have been interrupted based in normal use, not a reduction

    I don't think 2M people in a few square miles all texting, pic/vid messaging, and calling is "normal use".

    Mitigating any *major* issues brought about with extreme usage is survival, to me.

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    No comprende? Let me type that a little slower for you...
  3. Re:Improving networks by JCSoRocks · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why do people assume it's so easy to magically improve the infrastructure of the entire US? Have you compared the size of America to the size of Europe or Japan? The lower 48 are huge even without including Alaska. I want faster broadband and improved cell phone coverage too but lets be realistic. We're a bit bigger than Japan / insert-random-euro-country-that-we-should-be-like.

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    You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
  4. Unmissable revenue opportunity by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Hardly a charitable act. Do you really think the providers were going to miss an opportunity like this? They'd have pretty much been guaranteed 100% utilization of equipment that often stands relatively idle.

    As for the content.... more does not mean better. Having millions sending vids and pics shot with crappy cellphone lenses was hardy of benefit. A few real camera crews with real cameras provided all the really useful (ie worth viewing) material.

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    Engineering is the art of compromise.
  5. Where's the motivation by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If people continue to pay high prices for shit service then where is the motivation to improve the infrastructure? They might bitch, they might grumble, but they still pay.

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    Engineering is the art of compromise.
  6. Re:Improving networks by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why do people assume it's so easy to magically improve the infrastructure of the entire US?

    Critcism makes us appear smarter. I remember one time there was a story about a 55x CD burner being the fastest one available at the time. I sarcastically said something like "why do we need faster burners? All you have to do is wait longer!" and was modded Insightful.

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    "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  7. Re:Improving networks by NateTech · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Israel's cell phone system is engineered to this type of standard. Every time the rockets hit, everyone checks in with loved ones to see if they're alright.

    It's really only the U.S. that has major overload issues when bad things happen. In places where bad things happen more often, their networks tend to be built to handle it.

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    +++OK ATH