Cellphone outage hits AT&T customers nationwide; Verizon and T-Mobile users also affected
AT&T service was down in major cities across United States before being restored hours later
Tens of thousands of AT&T customers were left without service for hours on Thursday for their home phone, internet and mobile phone services, according to Downdetector.
The outages started popping up just before 3:30 a.m. ET, according to a graph shown on the website that tracks outages. Just before 2 p.m. ET, the number of reports had declined drastically to nearly 4,900 after spiking at more than 73,000 just after 9 a.m. ET.
Most users still impacted, 51%, say they are having issues with mobile phone service. Forty percent of customers currently reporting being affected say they have no signal at all, and 9% of users say their mobile internet is down.
"Should get a stimulus check for this," one man wrote on the website.
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American telecommunications company AT&T logo seen in San Francisco. (Alex Tai/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)
"I lost my cell service at 5:56 a.m. est! I was in the middle of working when I lost it," another commented.
"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," AT&T said in a statement to FOX Business.
No cause for the outage was given. A defense official told Fox News that there was "no indication it was a cyber attack."
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| T | AT&T INC. | 23.27 | +0.19 | +0.82% |
| VZ | VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC. | 44.40 | +0.03 | +0.06% |
| TMUS | T-MOBILE US INC. | 246.20 | +2.16 | +0.89% |
The Federal Communications Commission said it was aware of the outages.
"We are aware of the reported wireless outages, and our Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau is actively investigating," the FCC posted on X. "We are in touch with AT&T and public safety authorities, including FirstNet, as well as other providers."
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Most people affected by the outage are reporting problems with their mobile phone service. (Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The FBI was also aware of the outage when reached by FOX Business.
"The FBI is in contact with AT&T regarding today's network outage. Should we learn of any malicious activity we will respond accordingly," an FBI spokesperson said.
Most reported locations of customers impacted are in the south and southeast U.S.
At 3:10 p.m. ET, AT&T said service had been restored.
"We have restored wireless service to all our affected customers," the company said. "We sincerely apologize to them. Keeping our customers connected remains our top priority, and we are taking steps to ensure our customers do not experience this again in the future."
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said it was "aware of the reports and we are working closely with AT&T to understand the cause of the outage and its impacts, and stand ready to offer any assistance needed."
Throughout the day, Downdetector also showed a spike in reported T-Mobile outages around 4 a.m. ET. A T-Mobile spokesperson told FOX Business they did not experience an outage and that their network is operating normally.
"Down Detector is likely reflecting challenges our customers were having attempting to connect to users on other networks," the T-Mobile statement reads.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said AT&T indicated it had no reason to think the outages were part of a cyberattack.
"But again, to be careful, we won't know until an investigation has been completed and obviously we're going to work from the federal level to assist the network providers in doing that to the best that we can," he told FOX Business' Edward Lawrence.
A Verizon spokesperson says customers are experiencing issues when trying to contact someone with AT&T service. (REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo / Reuters Photos)
Verizon had a similar explanation after some of their customers reported problems.
"Verizon's network is operating normally," a statement from Verizon to FOX Business said. "Some customers experienced issues this morning when calling or texting with customers served by another carrier. We are continuing to monitor the situation."
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The Flagler County Sheriff's Office in Florida posted on X at 5:18 a.m. local time that residents were unable to call 911 due to an AT&T outage. They later updated to say, "Texts to 911 from affected AT&T users are now being received," and that people should text if they are unable to call.
The office posted later on that residents were still having difficulty calling 911, but that officials were monitoring the Rapid SOS system, which they can use to see who is trying to call 911 and then call them back.
"We are aware of the reported wireless outages, and our Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau is actively investigating," the Federal Communications Commission said in a statement to FOX Business. "We are in touch with AT&T and public safety authorities, including FirstNet, as well as other providers."
Fox News' Liz Friden contributed to this report.