PrePaidGSM.net Forum (Archived) - Obama Day: Cell-Phone Networks don't crash

Nice story FOXNews.com - Inauguration Crowd Strains, but Doesn't Crash, Cell-Phone Networks

All four major cellular carriers — Verizon Wireless, AT&T Wireless, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile — had spent millions of dollars trucking in temporary cell-phone towers to Washington, D.C., to handle the huge strain inauguration attendees were expected to put on their networks.
Kingston said his carrier was AT&T, and that some text messages had been arriving an hour after they'd been sent.
"It could be the busiest day that anyone has ever seen," Verizon Wireless spokesman John Johnson told the Boston Herald.

  National Mall personnel told FoxNews.com that some cellular service was already down in the area at 8 a.m. on Inauguration Day, four hours before the official ceremony, but was restored about an hour later.
New Yorker Bernice Salik, another AT&T customer, told the AP she couldn't get through to her sister who was also in Washington, but had successfully called her husband back home.
"It seems like people are having a hard time reaching other people in Washington," said Salik.
AT&T and T-Mobile reported congestion at some towers and said they were shunting service to less-trafficked ones. Verizon said most of its calls were getting through, despite three to five times the normal volume of calls. [...]