Throngs of people at the inauguration threaten to overwhelm the cell phone system with a massive number of calls, texts, tweets and emails, reports the New York Times. Major cell phone companies are scrambling to upgrade and add capacity, but no one knows how the system will respond to the enormous volume of calls.
"If some of these estimates come true, people should expect delays sending text messages or making phone calls or getting onto the internet," said a spokesman for the Cellular Communications and Internet Association. "We can only bend the laws of physics so much."
(More cell phones stories.)