Cellphone firms beg inauguration crowds: text not talk
By John Lister
The cellphone industry has asked spectators at the Obama inauguration to send text messages rather than make voice calls during the event. It’s also asked people to wait until after the event to send photographs or visit Web sites.
The plea, which comes from the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, comes after days of speculation that networks might not be able to cope. As CTIA spokesman Joe Farren says, “We can only bend the laws of physics so much”.
Ironically Farren’s comments come in a New York Times article – which notes that the newspaper is asking readers to e-mail their photographs of the event.
The biggest problem is that the exact size of the crowd is unpredictable meaning network managers have to estimate the right balance between coping with demand and not spending so much that they waste money.
Cellphone firms have boosted the network with extra radios on existing masts and a fleet of trucks with portable masts. The firms seem to be preparing for a crowd around 2 million, but past that point it may be more efficient to try to change how people use their phones than to build in extra capacity for a single day.
The biggest problem might not be the actual data demands of calls and texts themselves, but rather the system used to connect phones from out-of-towners to local networks. Unlike major sports events (except those played at neutral venues), the inauguration could well have the majority of spectators being from out of town.
There is at least one person guaranteed to get solid reception throughout the day though. As we reported at the weekend, Obama taking office entitles him to the highest level of clearance in a national security scheme which ensures his handset gets priority connections.
He’ll also be getting a special smart-card which gets him free calls from any public phone booth. Perhaps that might mean he’ll no longer be asking for change.
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