Sprint wanted a huge turnout for the new iPhone today, but it apparently wasn't been able to handle the response. Sprint's support team received an influx of tweets from people today saying that the carrier's sales and activation systems were down, preventing them from buying a new phone or getting their new phone set up with the network. The issues were going on for what looks like a little over three hours, starting before 4PM ET and ending after 7PM ET.

"There's been a delay in the activation process."

"Due to the launch of the iPhone, there's been a delay in the activation process," said one Sprint customer service tweet. Other tweets addressing the in-store sales system failure added, "Our technicians are aware are are working to resolve the issue."

It's not clear how widespread the issue was, but people from San Diego to DC tweeted at Sprint about experiencing problems. As of just after 7:20PM ET, a Sprint representative said that all systems were back up and running as they should. It's a frustrating lapse for both Sprint and its customers, but having issues on a high-traffic day like an iPhone launch are not entirely uncommon. AT&T's support Twitter also said that people are seeing activation delays on its network, too.

Update 7:35PM ET: Sprint's systems are now functional again. This story has been updated to reflect this.

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