Building-out systems and networks to handle capacity is always a challenge for companies in the tech industry.

It could be as simple as trying to size your computer so it can handle your largest spreadsheets or hold all your video. It could be the localized challenge facing your office manager or IT department: Ensuring that your local Internet connection can handle your two, 10 or 200 office-mates as they surf, send/receive e-mail and (during their breaks, of course) watch YouTube videos.

If you have those types of challenges on the low end, imagine how hard it is for companies who are providing services to you. Did you ever stop to realize that Google needs thousands of servers to give you answers in seconds? Most Web sites use just one or a handful of computers to provide service to you and everybody else who hits their pages, whether to read a paragraph or conduct a transaction.

In most cases, capacity can be predicted -- although not always accurately. In some cases, the problem gets more complicated -- like being able to handle those peak loads that only happen occasionally without overspending on the normal days.

During the Pittsburgh Steelers' AFC Championship win over the Baltimore Ravens, Heinz Field was filled to capacity -- just like it is on a handful of Sundays every football season. Yet, while it seemed to you like a normal (although very excited) crowd that day, it didn't feel like it to the cell phone companies. Verizon Wireless had its hands full because the fans in and around Heinz Field were making 50 percent more phone calls through its system than on a normal game day -- a 432 percent increase over nongame Sundays.

So, if you were lucky enough to have a ticket, you might not have been able to get all your calls out. Even text messages, which take up a lot less bandwidth as they move from your phone to the phone on the other end, rose -- almost double the number sent that day compared with the normal Sunday game.

But that's nothing compared with the capacity issues the cell phone companies face for super events or rare presidential events -- such as the Super Bowl, where everybody comes from out-of-town -- or the Presidential Inaugural, which happens so rarely.

This year, the cell phone companies had been pulling out all stops to help you get your call through during the Inaugural events.

Two million visitors to Washington, D.C., certainly means hundreds of thousands of cell phones in a very small area, many trying to use them at the same time. This type of event means photo ops -- and photos mean large amounts of data being sent on the cell systems -- and that means tie-ups. Teenagers trying to get word back to their families, groups trying to stay together (using cell phones as their glue), media personnel trying to get their scoops back to their papers, radio stations or TV stations. They all take bandwidth -- and they all want it from a small amount of equipment meant to service the area.

The cell phone companies prepared way in advance for the cellular swarm on Inauguration Day by adding new equipment in Washington, putting up new antennas (many temporary) and even rolling in mobile satellite uplinks to provide as much capacity as they could for an event that is among the largest cell phone events in history.

If your cell phone call didn't go through while you were on the National Mall or Inaugural parade route, don't blame the cell phone carriers. Blame the guy next to you -- sending those photos.