Wow, did this article really nail it on the head with regard to the continued shortcomings on wireless services.

To John Graves, wireless communications is a lot more than Verizon Wireless’ catchy “Can You Hear Me Now?” tag line. It’s about emergency responders hearing one another when it counts.

Graves, program director for the Government Emergency Telecommunications Service, which is part of the Department of
Homeland Security, is one of the people trying to answer a key question revolving around wireless networks: Why are cellular networks among the first to fail during an emergency?
“In emergencies, it’s not just emergency workers using wireless, it’s everybody,” said Graves in Arlington, Va. “Everybody wants to call home. People pick up the phone and make a lot of telephone calls. This causes the phone network, including wireless, to get congested.”
According to Graves, the telephone network is built to have a call success rate of 99 percent on the busiest hour of the busiest day of the year. The problem: During national emergencies—think Hurricane Katrina and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks—that success rate can drop as low as 10 percent…. Source: PC Mag