Having promised that mobile networks would not “die”, mobile operators suggested their subscribers extending congratulations in advance however, just in case. Cellular networks being overloaded on holidays is common for large cities, where cellular telecommunication is widespread. In Russia this statement holds true for Moscow and St. Petersburg, with Moscow approaching European megalopolises with regard to the penetration of cellular phones.

In Europe things are a little better however, as European mobile operators differ as to the quality of and prices for services they provide: now there are operators providing a full range of high-quality services at higher prices and operators providing inferior services at lower prices. This differentiation makes the distribution of mobile connections among network subscribers non-uniform. Unlike in Russia, the peak of cellular phone activity in Europe falls on Christmas Day, and not on New Year’s Day. This Christmas Day showed that there had been no serious problems with basic European mobile networks.

The mentioned principle of classification is hardly applicable to Russian mobile operators. In Russia the networks of different operators have almost equal parameters, and this is why new-year’s-day problems are shared almost equally, and consequently mobile operators take similar precautions and make similar announcements to reassure their subscribers.

Not a single cellular network in the world is designed for coping with a one-time tenfold increase of traffic, which is typical for New Year’s Day. Usually a network has a 30-percent marginal capacity, and that is why failures are inevitable. SMS messages can hardly be regarded as a plaster of all sores, as the SMS center can easily be overflown too. Although every SMS message is awaiting delivery in a special buffer, operators will have to diminish a corresponding time lag from several days to several hours this time. Therefore, if the telephone of an SMS message receiver is switched off, the message may never reach him.

Operators admit that it is hardly possible to improve cellular networks in the center of Moscow due to a lack of free frequencies as well as the architectural diversity.