Wireless Companies Say Made In America Was Cell Service Test For Papal Visit

By Ian Bush

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The wireless companies said this past weekend's Made In America festival would be a test of how they're prepared to handle the slew of smartphones expected along the Parkway for the pope's visit later this month.

It's not for lack of trying: Verizon and AT&T each have spent more than $20 million beefing up their networks, quadrupling capacity in Center City. To do so, they're using things like Distributed Antenna Systems -- short towers or radio nodes attached to lampposts where the densest crowds are expected.

"If you're talking about a million people in a very small area -- there have been systems that have been boosted in capacity to handle that sort of thing in the past, but there's never been a system that could fully handle all the traffic."

Joe Madden is principal analyst with the wireless market research firm Mobile Experts. He says the cell companies are doing it the right way, with the Labor Day weekend festival as a trial balloon.

"What they can do is move the antennas around to point the antennas in slightly different directions." says Madden. "They can place another small cell in that location and adjust the system in that way."

He says this is an extreme case, and you'll likely be met with the on-screen spinning wheel of death when trying to use data during prime pope times.

Still, wireless customers will benefit after Francis is gone -- since a good deal of the network improvements are permanent.