A nationwide cellphone outage hit tens of thousands of AT&T users Thursday morning.
70,000 AT&T outages reported after 8 a.m. According to the downdetector, a crash detection website. The first blackout occurred just before 4 am
“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning” AT&T said in a statement early Thursday 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 the remaining customers.
AT&T, the nation's largest carrier, has more than 240 million subscribers.
No reason was given for the outage. The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said there was no indication of a cyber attack.
🆘 Phones switched to SOS mode
Many AT&T users reported that their phones were switched to “SOS” mode. On Apple iPhones, SOS mode appears when your device is not connected to a cellular network. But you can still make emergency calls. This feature is available in the US, Canada and Australia.
Earlier Thursday, AT&T encouraged its customers to use Wi-Fi calling until service is restored.
📲 How to Enable Wi-Fi Calling
here (via USA Today) How to do it on iPhone and Android devices:
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Tap Settings
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Tap the phone
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Toggle Wi-Fi Calling
Wi-Fi calling for Android devices:
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Open your phone app
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Tap more
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Tap Settings
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Tap Calls
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Tap Wi-Fi Calling
➡️ Which other cell phone customers are experiencing difficulties?
According to Downdetector, Cricket Wireless had more than 13,000 outages. Verizon had more than 4,000 outages; T-Mobile had more than 1,900 outages; And Boost Mobile had about 700 outages.
But both Verizon and T-Mobile said their networks were operating normally and that the outages listed on the downdetector were likely the result of their customers calling or texting AT&T subscribers.
“Our network is operating normally,” T-Mobile said in a statement to The Associated Press. “Down Detector may reflect the challenges our customers face trying to connect to users on other networks.”
🚑 Emergency services affected
In San Francisco, the outage prevented people from reaching emergency services by dialing 911. According to a post on X by the city's fire department.
“We are aware of an issue that is affecting AT&T Wireless customers from making and receiving any phone calls (including 911),” the San Francisco Fire Department said. “We are actively engaged and monitoring this.
“The San Francisco 911 center is still operational,” it added. “If you're an AT&T customer and can't get through to 911, try calling from a landline. If that's not possible, try to get a friend or family member who is a customer of another carrier and ask them to call 911 on your behalf. Do not call or text 911 to test your phone service.
📶 When will cell service return?
A time is not immediately known. In its statement, AT&T said we are working urgently to restore service to affected customers.
