Around 9 a.m. ET this morning, 74,000 AT&T customers lacked access, per CNN. That number dropped to 25,000 by 12:30 p.m. ET as the company worked to restore its network.
By 1:30 p.m. ET, most of the users who’d reported outages to the website Downdetector within the past 24 hours were located in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Miami, New York City and San Antonio.
The incident also impacted customers of AT&T-owned Cricket Wireless, which uses the parent company’s network. As of 8 a.m. ET, 13,500 Cricket Wireless customers were experiencing outages, NBC reported.
About 3,000 Verizon and 1,100 T-Mobile customers had reported outages by 7 a.m. Thursday, but the telecoms told NBC their networks were operating as normal and that they believed the impacted users had been trying to reach other carriers’ customers.
Beyond the inconvenience, the incident raises safety concerns. In some cities, emergency responders have been posting advice to residents who cannot reach 911 through their phones.
St. Joseph County, Mich., advised using Wi-Fi to make calls if normal methods don’t go through, and Cabell County, W.Va., recommended texting 911 if needed, per CNN. Prince William County, Va.’s Emergency Management Office also advised residents experiencing difficulties to use a landline, turn on Wi-Fi calling, try the county’s non-emergency line or borrow a cellphone from someone with another provider.
Similar advice was echoed across X by the San Francisco Fire Department and Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications.
We are aware of an issue impacting AT&T wireless customers from making and receiving any phone calls (including to 911).
— SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT MEDIA (@SFFDPIO) February 22, 2024
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
And CNN said Upper Arlington, Ohio’s Fire Department is experiencing a disruption to its fire alarms as a result of the outage.
Some police departments also reported issues. New York Police Department officials told the outlet that they could not take calls or emails on AT&T phones during Thursday morning without first connecting to Wi-Fi.
And in Massachusetts, concerned residents were tangling up call lines.
Many 911 centers in the state are getting flooded w/ calls from people trying to see if 911 works from their cell phone. Please do not do this. If you can successfully place a non-emergency call to another number via your cell service then your 911 service will also work. #outage
— Mass State Police (@MassStatePolice) February 22, 2024
According to AT&T, 75 percent of its network was restored by 11:15 a.m. ET today. It did not specify the cause of the incident.
