Somehow I forgot to mention one of the great taglines of SXSWi. I was catching up on my blog reading and found a reminder embedded in this post. That’s right kids. 3G. 3G. 3G was on FIRE!  I knew there was a problem but I hadn’t done any research to see if my hunch about too many iPhones in the downtown/convention center region was right.  Yes, little readers, I was right.  The number of iPhones social networking was too much for the 3G network to handle.

M and I are on the T-mobile network but, 10HDG and a few members of our posse are on that other wireless network. While the 3G network was experiencing a little burning and discomfort, M and I were texting away.  Unfortunately the recipients of those texts were receiving them minutes later and often receiving a flood of incoming information.

According to Business Insider, AT&T was aware of the problem:

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.

So next year when the dork boys descend upon downtown,  the network SHOULD be able to handle it.  Surprisingly enough, my other theory didn’t come to fruition.  I had expected twitter to crash and burn.