Even though hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the National Mall in front of the Capitol and Washington Monument Tuesday to welcome the new U.S. President Barack Obama, reports indicate that cell phone reception wasn't as bad as expected.

Several mobile phone networks seemed to be overwhelmed during the late morning and early afternoon surrounding Obama's swearing-in ceremony at noon and some customers complained, but all in all it was not the end of the world.

The major mobile phone service providers said they were generally happy with their network performance during the inaugural events, given that more than a million people attended the celebration.

AT&T Wireless' mobile network experienced "some congestion" during the morning's events, but customer were usually able to complete their calls a few minutes later, said Mark Siegel, an AT&T spokesman. AT&T Wireless has boosted its wireless network capacity by more than 69 percent along the parade route, Siegel explained

The fear of the carriers was mostly related to the fact that because of overwhelming traffic, customers will see a greatly increased amount of dropped calls, lost photos or delayed text messaged. One of the things expected to contribute to the amount of bandwidth consumer in D.C. was the large image sizes many camera phones are capable of capturing today.

The industry has prepared for months to boost capacity, anticipating record-breaking demand. All four major cellular carriers (Verizon Wireless, AT&T Wireless, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile) have spent millions of dollars to add radio channels, install mobile cell towers, expand in-building wireless coverage and bolster network capacity.