A widespread cellular outage has affected large areas of the United States, disrupting services from major carriers including AT&T, Verizon, and T‑Mobile.
Data from outage tracker Downdetector showed more than 32,000 AT&T incident reports around 4:30 a.m. Eastern Time. The outage impacted multiple metropolitan areas such as San Francisco, Houston, and Chicago, according to the site’s reports.
Customers of other providers—including Verizon, T‑Mobile, UScellular, Cricket Wireless, and Boost Mobile—also reported service interruptions.
Reports that most US service providers have gone down… #usa #telecoms #connectivity #mobile #tech #news #technology pic.twitter.com/HiT0eMheAN
— Ryan Daws 🤓 (@Gadget_Ry) February 22, 2024
The San Francisco Fire Department posted on X (formerly Twitter) about the outage’s effect on emergency communications, noting that some people were having difficulty reaching 911. The department said it was actively addressing the situation and monitoring developments to reduce the impact on public safety.
We are aware of an issue impacting AT&T wireless customers from making and receiving any phone calls (including to 911).
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
— SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT MEDIA (@SFFDPIO) February 22, 2024
The scale of the outage has highlighted concerns about the resilience of telecommunications infrastructure and how prepared carriers are to handle sudden, widespread failures. Customers affected by the disruption experienced inconveniences ranging from dropped calls to inability to access mobile data.
Industry observers and the public are asking what caused the outage, how quickly carriers can restore full service, and what measures will be put in place to reduce the risk of recurrence. The event also raised questions about contingency plans for critical services, including alternative ways to contact emergency responders when primary mobile networks are impaired.
(Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash)
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