Sam Amico
It wasn’t so easy to phone home on Thursday. Or even send a text. Or do anything on your cellular device, for that matter.
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That’s because AT&T experienced massive nationwide outages, as did Verizon and T-Mobile to lesser degrees.
Some of the outages were being reported as early as 4 a.m. Eastern for AT&T. But the company didn’t address it until several hours later.
“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning,” the company said in a statement. “We are working urgently to restore service to them. We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored.”
No one said anything about what caused the outages or when service might be fully restored.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida, indicated he reached out to AT&T.
“Florida law enforcement is doing everything it can to keep people safe, and I expect AT&T to keep us informed on what it is doing to get 911 services fully back online ASAP,” he wrote in a post X, formerly Twitter.
Per Boston 25 News:
Downdetector said that most of the reported problems appeared to be in major cities, listing Los Angeles, Dallas, San Diego, Houston, San Antonio, Honolulu, Chicago, San Francisco and Atlanta.
According to AT&T’s website, there were also wireless outages in Milwaukee and Richmond, Virginia, with the initial cause listed as “maintenance activity.”
More than 31,900 AT&T wireless customers reported outages at around 4:30 a.m. ET, according to data from Downdetector. ABC News reported that AT&T suffered a major outage that started just before 4 a.m. Thursday.
By 7:12 a.m. ET, more than 51,000 people had reported problems with AT&T service. At 8 a.m., that number topped 69,000.
Most users, 54%, complained that they were having issues with mobile phone service. More than a third of customers reported having no signal at all, and 8% of users said their mobile internet was down.
Verizon and T-Mobile wireless customers in the U.S. reported more than 800 service outages on the platform in the early morning hours, according to Reuters.
By 7 a.m. ET, that number had grown to more than 3,900 complaints.
