AT&T says it’s ready for SXSW

AT&T has gotten a lot of grief about network issues over the last couple of years. In fact, the problems can be traced back to when the carrier began offering the iPhone under its exclusive contract with Apple. iPhone users account for about three percent of AT&T customers, but that three percent accounts for about 40 percent of network usage. Cities like New York and San Francisco have seen the most issues with dropped calls, and slow download and upload speeds. But what happens when you get a huge group of not just iPhone, but smartphone users under one roof? Attendees of the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference and AT&T found out last year.

SXSW is a conglomeration of festivals and conferences about music, film, and interactive technology. Taking place in Austin, Texas, it began in 1987, and has grown from a few hundred in attendance to several thousand. It’s one of the largest music festivals in the United States, hosting more than a thousand performers. It’s also become a hotspot for interactive technology. Twitter launched its service there in 2007. It’s only fitting that those in attendance would rely on interactive technology to enhance their SXSW experience. They use their smartphones to take photos and upload them to various sites, send text messages, and update their Twitter streams on a regular basis, not to mention just make regular phone calls. So much activity concentrated in one are can put a strain on any wireless network.

This was the case last year. AT&T customers, many of them iPhone users, who attended SXSW 2009 encountered network gridlock. Afterward, AT&T acknowledged the inability of its local network to accommodate so many users in one location. The company says this year will be different.

The carrier has improved its network in downtown Austin, where the majority of SXSW events are held. They’ve upgraded several cellular towers in the area, and added portable transmission sites, also known as cellular on wheels, or COWs. It’s also increased the numer of Wi-Fi hotspots around the city, mostly downtown, and even gone so far as to install a special cellular antenna inside the Austin Convention Center.

A representative of an Austin-based technology consultancy said that while AT&T is criticized for its network issues, if any of the other wireless carriers had the iPhone, they’d have the same problems. This may be true. In fact, it most certainly is true. But it’s difficult to feel sorry for AT&T for two reasons. First, it means they didn’t do a very good job of projecting the burden the iPhone would put on their network, and therefore didn’t prepare for it.

Second, and this is more on Apple’s shoulders than AT&T’s, maybe the iPhone shouldn’t have been launched exclusively on one carrier, and instead should have been available through at least two, if not more. Spreading the high network usage among two, three, or even four carriers would have decreased the burden on any one network, and AT&T wouldn’t have to ask their iPhone customers to reduce their network usage. Of course, sharing the device would have meant less profit for AT&T, but it would have better served iPhone users and wireless customers. You know what they say about hindsight.

In any case, AT&T is learning from its mistakes and trying to avoid making the same ones. The thousands of tweets that will come out of SXSW will be a telltale indicator of just how well they remedied the problem—or how much apologizing they’ll have to do afterward.

Filed under : AT&T