iPhone SMASH Puny AT&T Network at SXSW in Austin, TX

By Rene Ritchie
last updated

What's causing all the commotion down in Austin, Texas right now? Turns out it's not only iPhone news at South by Southwest 2009 (SXSW), but it's everyone using iPhone 3Gs as well! It's SMASHING AT&T's network.

We've joked before that AT&T had basically gone out and strapped rabbit ears on their EDGE antennas and called it 3G, well if that's the case, they're rapidly strapping even more ears on round Austin way right now, according to Business Insider:

AT&T (T) tells us it's adding wireless capacity in downtown Austin to deal with "unprecedented" demand (that's resulted in service that's flaky at best). This, of course, a result of thousands (tens of thousands?) of South by Southwest attendees bringing 3G iPhones into this part of Austin for the first time. The telco expects service to improve tonight and throughout the rest of the show.

Good news to most techies, however: while AT&T was down, at least Twitter was mostly up...

Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.