Cell Phone Outage on Thursday evening that the service disruption, which affected numerous customers for several hours, was attributed to a procedural mistake rather than a cyber assault.
AT&T has confirmed that the widespread outage experienced on Thursday, which left thousands of customers without service for several hours, was not the result of a cyberattack. Instead, the company believes that the outage was caused by an error in the process used during the expansion of their network.
By Thursday afternoon, AT&T had successfully restored service to all affected customers. During the outage, over 32,000 outages were reported by customers, with the number peaking at more than 71,000 just before 8 a.m. ET. The majority of these issues were reported in Houston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.
AT&T has acknowledged the issue on Thursday morning, stating that some of their customers are currently facing interruptions in their wireless service. Other major cellular providers such as Verizon, T-Mobile, and Cricket Wireless have also reported outages. Verizon and T-Mobile have mentioned that the affected individuals were attempting to contact AT&T users.
However, Verizon clarified that the outages are not directly impacting their network, but rather customers trying to reach another carrier. T-Mobile, on the other hand, confirmed that their network did not experience any outage. Cricket Wireless, which operates on AT&T’s network, also encountered cellular problems. As of 8 a.m. ET Thursday, over 13,500 customers reported outages, but the number decreased to around 10,000 by 10 a.m.
The company stated on X that there is an ongoing network incident affecting various services. Restoring service to its full capacity promptly and securely is Cricket’s utmost concern.
All affected AT&T customers have now had their service restored.
In a statement, the company expressed its sincere apologies to the affected customers and emphasized that keeping them connected is their primary focus. They are also implementing measures to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.
AT&T has not disclosed any specific information regarding the reason behind the nationwide service disruption. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has confirmed that there is no evidence of a cyberattack being the cause.
According to Lee McKnight, an associate professor at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies, the most probable explanation for the outage is a cloud misconfiguration, which essentially refers to human error.
The incident is currently under investigation by the Federal Communications Commission. Additionally, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security are providing assistance in the matter.
The service outages have raised concerns among some customers, particularly regarding their ability to reach emergency services like 911 on Thursday morning.
The San Francisco Fire Department has acknowledged a problem impacting AT&T wireless subscribers’ ability to place and receive phone calls, including emergency calls to 911.
The office has confirmed that the San Francisco 911 center is currently functioning. In case you are an AT&T customer and facing difficulties in reaching 911, it is advised to attempt calling from a landline. If this is not feasible, it is recommended to reach out to a friend or family member who uses a different carrier and request them to contact 911 on your behalf.
In a similar vein, the Office of Emergency Management and Communications in Chicago, the Prince William County Police Department in Virginia, and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in North Carolina all issued alerts on X, notifying the public about the service disruption. They acknowledged that a few customers experienced a temporary inability to reach 911 during this time.
Mayor Andre Dickens of Atlanta mentioned in a previous announcement that the city was in the process of collecting information to help address the problem.
Dickens stated that Atlanta’s e-911 has the capability to both receive incoming calls and make outgoing calls. Several AT&T customers have contacted us, reporting that their mobile phones are currently in SOS mode.
It is important to note that during the outage, iPhone users who noticed the SOS indicator on their status bar were still able to make emergency calls using alternative carrier networks.
Authorities nationwide have strongly advised individuals to avoid dialing 911 for the purpose of testing their service. The emergency hotline should only be utilized in genuine emergency situations.