UPDATE AS OF 2/22/24 at 8:30pm CST
AT&T (T.N), opens new tab said late on Thursday an outage that disrupted calls and text messages for thousands of U.S. users and prompted federal investigations was not caused by a cyberattack. The carrier had restored wireless service for all affected customers, several hours after an outage that affected more than 70,000 users at its peak. "Based on our initial review, we believe that today's outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network," the wireless carrier said in a statement on its website. (source)
UPDATE AS OF 2/22/24 at 1:46pm CST
By late morning, AT&T reported that 75% of its network had been restored. Cricket later issued an identical statement.
The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Communications Commission are investigating the outage.
UPDATE AS OF 2/22/24 at 9:46 CST
Over 32,000 AT&T outages were reported by customers at about 4 a.m. ET Thursday, according to the tracking site Downdetector.
Reports dipped before spiking again to more than 50,000 around 7 a.m., with most issues reported in Houston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Atlanta.
That number surged to around 72,000 at 10 a.m.
Cricket Wireless, which is owned by AT&T and uses its networks, is also experiencing outages.
Some Verizon and T-Mobile customers also reported outages, though theirs appeared to be less widespread than AT&T. (source)
ORIGINAL POST
According to data sourced from Downdetector, a significant portion of the American populace is currently contending with disruptions in cellular service across various providers, including AT&T, Cricket Wireless, Verizon, and T-Mobile.
Around 9:30 a.m. ET, AT&T recorded over 73,000 outages in areas such as Houston, Atlanta, and Chicago, with the disruptions commencing at approximately 3:30 a.m. ET. AT&T, the largest carrier in the country with more than 240 million subscribers, acknowledged the issue and expressed urgency in restoring service, advising affected customers to utilize Wi-Fi calling until normal service resumes.
Meanwhile, Cricket Wireless reported over 13,000 outages, while Verizon and T-Mobile registered more than 4,000 and 1,800 outages, respectively. Boost Mobile was also affected, with roughly 700 outages.
Although Verizon clarified that its network was functioning correctly, some customers encountered difficulties when communicating with subscribers of other carriers. T-Mobile, on the other hand, asserted that its network remained unaffected and suggested that reported issues on Down Detector might stem from challenges in connecting to users on alternative networks.
Additionally, certain iPhone users observed SOS messages on their devices' status bars, indicating trouble connecting to their cellular providers' networks. However, they could still place emergency calls through other carrier networks, as confirmed by Apple Support.
As of now, no definitive explanation has been provided for the ongoing outages.
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Incident Number
2-240222-7401
Alert Type
Critical Incident Notification
Incident Type
Public Safety Incident
Incident Occurred
February 22 2024
Alert Posted
February 22 2024
Location
Nationwide
END OF ALERT