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The Obama inaugural is poised to be probably the most viewed television event on mobile but it’s also going to be an acid test for MobiTV’s ability to handle network overload.

NYT reports that with even the presidential debates drawing more than double the average daily viewership, challenges abound for MobiTV which broadcasts live television across 20 mobile networks.

Live breaking news and sporting events are some of the company’s most popular broadcasts, but also “have the greatest load on the network in terms of number of concurrent users,” said Ray DeRenzo, the director of programming and marketing at MobiTV, which began offering wireless video in 2003.

The biggest challenge when handling popular live events is network overload, an obstacle Mr. DeRenzo says the company tackles by lowering video and audio quality; its video frame rate drops from 20 frames per second to as low as 15. MobiTV’s service can also delivers video over Wi-Fi if a subscriber’s phone is set up for it.