The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that cell phone capacity may still be inadequate for the Philadelphia papal visit, despite upgrades performed by the wireless carriers. The industry calls it a "mass calling event", similiar to halftime at the Super Bowl, a presidential inaugration in Washington, or midnight on New Year's Eve in Times Square.
Verizon says it quadrupled its capacity in center city Philadelphia. Other carriers, including Crown Castle International Corp (a wireless infrastructure company) said they made major upgrades as well.
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In the past, "Mass Calling Events" were avoided as much as possible - radio stations, for example, were given special exchange codes for their "contest" lines, which have a very limited set of trunks assigned to them, so as to avoid overtaxing the system.
When overloads are inevitable - as on Mothers Day - I think it's appropriate to tell customers that the phone network has limited capacity, and that they will get busy signals sometimes. Call me old fashioned, but the desire of some cellular users to have constant, infallible, limitless service mystifies me.