∞ AT&T's network holds up at SXSW

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AT&T said it was prepared for SXSW this year and by all accounts, the network is holding up. The problem is that they didn’t really fixed the underlying problem. AT&T put in mobile cell towers to handle the extra bandwidth consumed at the show, but the network is still broken. That’s what needs to be fixed.

AT&T’s network up to SXSW iPhone onslaught [CNET]


  • James Bailey

    What? Are you suggesting that AT&T somehow over provision all cell towers in the US so that none will ever be overwhelmed by temporary and unusually high demand? That is not remotely reasonable. Something like SXSW increases usage by a huge amount–for one week a year. So AT&T is temporarily putting up additional cell sites. Leaving them up for the other 51 weeks a year would be a waste.

    What's really broken about AT&T's network is the lack of adequate backhaul. AT&T needs to radically increase the amount of bandwidth available to each cell site.