Re: "Rather, 300-500 cell phones all trying to contact the next cell tower..." That might have been a concern when 2.5G was cutting edge and HLR/VLR databases

Re: "Rather, 300-500 cell phones all trying to contact the next cell tower..." That might have been a concern when 2.5G was cutting edge and HLR/VLR databases ran on Sun hardware of the period. Even then, hundreds of updates in a couple seconds was not a huge challenge. Like a lot of what airlines tell customers, it is a self-serving version of reality, strongly colored for airlines' convenience and deniability.