Several phone service providers, including AT&T, were down for many users in the United States early Thursday, according to Downdetector.com, which tracks user reports of telecommunications and Internet disruptions.
The outage, which affected users in cities including Atlanta, Los Angeles and Dallas, was first reported around 3:30 a.m. Eastern Time, and numerous issues were still being reported five hours later.
AT&T said in a statement Thursday that some of its customers had experienced disruptions in wireless service. “We are working urgently to restore service to you,” the statement said, without providing an estimate as to when service will be available again. “We recommend using Wi-Fi calling until service is restored.”
The company said on its website that radio outages also occurred in San Diego, Richmond and Miami, with the original cause being “maintenance.”
Around 8 a.m., about 70,000 people reported to Downdetector that they were having problems with AT&T. Verizon and T-Mobile recorded significantly fewer reports, with more than 3,500 and 1,500, respectively.
Verizon and T-Mobile said in statements that their networks were operating normally.
“Some customers experienced issues this morning while calling or texting customers of another wireless carrier,” Verizon said. “We continue to monitor the situation.”
In an email, T-Mobile said: “We did not experience an outage. Our network is working normally. Downdetector likely reflects the difficulties our customers experienced when trying to connect to users on other networks.”
The San Francisco Fire Department said on social media that it was aware of an issue affecting AT&T users attempting to call 911. “We are actively engaged and monitoring this,” the fire department said. “If you are an AT&T customer and cannot reach 911, please try calling a landline.”
This is a developing story.
Victor Mather contributed reporting.
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2024-02-22 13:42:50
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