Early Thursday morning, AT&T customers experienced mass service outages that barred many from even contacting emergency services.
Around 70,000 instances of no service were reported by 10 a.m. EST on Thursday, which disrupted calls and text messages mainly. To coincide with this blunder, AT&T’s stock fell around two percent.
The company was urging customers experiencing issues to use Wi-Fi for calls and texts, especially in the case of an emergency. The San Francisco Fire Department acknowledged that people were unable to contact them for emergency services. “If you are an AT&T customer and cannot get through to 911, then please try calling from a landline. If that is not an option then please try to get a hold of a friend or family member who is a customer of a different carrier and ask them to call 911 on your behalf. Do not call or text 911 to simply test your phone service.”
We are aware of an issue impacting AT&T wireless customers from making and receiving any phone calls (including to 911).
We are actively engaged and monitoring this.
The San Francisco 911 center is still operational.
If you are an AT&T customer and cannot get through to 911,… pic.twitter.com/TUIEBkqmkI
— SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT MEDIA (@SFFDPIO) February 22, 2024
Was There a Cyber Attack?
In a statement to CNBC, an AT&T spokesperson stated “Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning. Our network teams took immediate action and so far three-quarters of our network has been restored. We are working as quickly as possible to restore service to remaining customers.”
Since, AT&T reports that around 75 percent of the network has been resolved. There has been no reason determined for the outages, and The U.S. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency says there are no signs of a cyber attack.
AT&T is the nation’s largest carrier with more than 240 million subscribers.
Other Cellular Outages
Cricket Wireless had over 13,000 outages reported while Verizon reported 4,000 and T-Mobile close to 2,000; however, these outages might be the result of attempted contact with AT&T customers and not an indication of any issue with the separate networks.
About the Author/s
The New Jersey Digest is a new jersey magazine that has chronicled daily life in the Garden State for over 10 years.
