We’re extremely excited to be bringing you news, events, and happenings “as it happens” at SXSW Interactive next week. However, as you may have experienced at a large event or gathering, cell phone service and WIFI connections aren’t always the most reliable. You’ve got hundreds or thousands of people all trying to connect at the same time, which is an obvious problem. Apparently AT&T got knocked last year for not anticipating all of the iPhones which would be at SXSW Interactive. That’s why this year, they’ve assured us it should be up and running. AT&T told the Austin Statesman that they’ve installed a cellular antenna system in the Austin Convention Center to handle the anticipated cell phone traffic. In addition, the local cellular towers have been enhanced and a series of temporary cellular on wheels (COW) portable transmission sites will be set up around the region to handle the rest of the traffic. There will be faster backhaul links present to keep bandwidth from getting too congested, and AT&T’s own network of Starbucks-hosted Wi-Fi hot spots have reportedly been enhanced to better meet the needs of attendees.
We’re hoping everything runs smoothly, but you never know what could happen when you’ve got over 5,000 people attending a tech conference with iPhones, and laptops, and Androids (Oh my!). As the title says, we’ll plan on bringing it to you in photo, video, and words the best we can.
