2024-02-22 18:29:18
Communications outage hits AT&T in the United States
A nationwide cellular service outage Thursday prevented some AT&T customers from making or receiving calls, including emergency calls.
AT&T network outages began spiking in the early morning hours US time, quickly grew to tens of thousands of reports on outage tracking website DownDetector, peaked shortly following 9 a.m. ET, and then gradually declined for the rest of the morning.
Shortly following 11 a.m., AT&T said service had been restored for most customers. Company spokesman Jim Greer said in a statement, “Three-quarters of our network has been restored,” adding, “We are working as quickly as possible to restore service to the remaining customers.”
Rival telecommunications company Verizon said its service was not interrupted. However, the Washington Post quoted a spokeswoman as saying, “Some customers experienced problems this morning when calling or sending text messages to customers served by another carrier.”
The other competitor, T-Mobile, said that its network also did not suffer an outage, and that its customers’ complaints regarding facing communications problems are due to the problem of the other network.
AT&T did not provide a reason for the outage, but in its response to a complaint on social media, the company cited maintenance work.
“I would like to thank you for your patience while our systems undergo planned maintenance/performance improvement,” X Support said.
Emergency communications crisis in America
Emergency centers in several states in the United States reported that the outage prevented people from making emergency calls from their cell phones.
Customers were advised to use a landline to make any calls, or to find a mobile phone that uses a different carrier.
Affected customers should try Wi-Fi calling on their phones until normal cellular service is restored, Greer said.
Jacob Sauer, director of public safety and emergency management communications for Arlington County in Virginia, revealed that the department stopped receiving 911 calls from AT&T users at regarding 6:30 a.m., and then began receiving calls once more at regarding 6:45 a.m.
The newspaper quoted Sauer as saying that following communicating with other emergency departments, the Arlington County agency determined that the outage was throughout the Washington, D.C., area.
Local governments across the country said the outage caused various disruptions to their emergency services.
Massachusetts State Police explained that several emergency centers in the state received calls from people trying to find out if 911 was working. “Please don’t do this,” she said on X.
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