[March 16, 2010] St. Patrick's Parade pics and texts test wireless network Tweet Mar 16, 2010 (The Times-Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Pictures of people festooned with green boas and beads, text messages setting up meetings at downtown taverns and Facebook and Twitter updates about the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Scranton gobbled up bandwidth on the Verizon Wireless system Saturday. The region's dominant wireless carrier reported about double the usual traffic for the four hours of the parade, tallying more than 428,453 text messages, 426,974 Internet connections and video and photo messages, and 322,440 cell phone calls originating in downtown Scranton. Verizon was able to handle the increased usage, but kept close tabs on how the network was holding up to the green wave of demand, said spokesman Sheldon Jones. The mobile provider often uses large events and big gatherings as a test of system capacity. "One of the rules of this industry is that you have to stay ahead of demand," Mr. Jones said. In Scranton, Verizon was able to make programing changes in its network to handle the flurry of photos and texts. In some extreme cases, Verizon will send out a COW, Cell tower On Wheels, or a COLT, Cell on Light Truck, to handle sudden temporary increases in demand. For example, Verizon closely tracked mobile demand during President Barack Obama's visit to Arcadia University. The company always follows demand at Pocono Raceway when it hosts NASCAR races. The goal is to ensure delivery of every mobile device-snapped picture of a guy in a green wig and every text announcing the pub crawl's next stop. Contact the writer: [email protected] To see more of The Times-Tribune or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/. Copyright (c) 2010, The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]