AT&T is scrambling to add cell tower capacity to downtown Austin to deal with the crush of iPhone-using SXSW attendees. The first two days here I couldn't do anything requiring the 3G network here at SXSW. Without the conference wi-fi signal I would have been completely out of touch with the outside world.

Let this be a lesson to AT&T; this is hardly the last time a whole swarm of iPhone 3G users will amass for a short time at one location. If they don't anticipate these they'll continue to take a brand beating on the twitblognets from time to time.

On a related note, I've never seen so many iPhones in one place before. In a panel today a presenter used the term "Blackberry prayer mode" to refer to the stance people take when...well, it's self-explanatory. Substitute iPhone for Blackberry and it's just as descriptive.

iPhone, sxsw, at&t