If you’re having an issue making a phone call in the United States today, you’re not alone. AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile are all suffering nationwide outages this morning without any indication as to why and when they will be resolved.
The popular website Downdetector, which tracks when services are down by getting input from the public, has seen a surge in reports starting around 4:00 AM EST. As of 10:11 AM EST, over 65,000 people reported an issue with AT&T service alone.
For Verizon, reports started around 4:00 AM EST as well, and as of 10:00 AM EST, those reports only number around 3,200 people. T-Mobile users have been reporting even fewer issues as Downdetector only shows around 1,500 reports as of 10:00 this morning.
The outage is also impacting a ton of other carriers who operate on the three major networks. Cricket Wireless, Consumer Cellular, Boost Mobile, Straight Talk, Mint Mobile, and US Cellular customers have all been reporting issues. However, the bulk of the reporting is coming from AT&T customers.
In a statement to CNN, an AT&T spokesperson said “Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning. We are working urgently to restore service to them. We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored.” The outage “is close to being resolved” according to Richard Young, a Verizon spokesman.
It appears that the issues may also be impacting internet services as well. Comcast, Verizon, Google Fiber, Spectrum, and even Starlink have seen surges of reported issues since earlier this morning.
It’s currently unclear what is causing the outage or exactly when it will be resolved, even though spokespeople are saying it will be resolved soon. We will update this story with more information when it is available.
Update: It’s all AT&T’s fault
Halfway through the day, it appears that all of the issues are actually solely on AT&T. First, Verizon released a statement that “Verizon’s network remains fully operational. Some customers may have experienced issues this morning when calling or texting those served by another carrier. Our network continues to function normally.”
Second, and even more hilarious, is the statement from T-Mobile. The company said “We did not experience an outage. Our network is operating normally. Down Detector is likely reflecting challenges our customers were having attempting to connect to users on other networks.” Other networks is a nice way of saying AT&T. I’m surprised the Uncarrier didn’t call them out directly.
As of 10:15 a.m. CT, AT&T says that it has three-quarters of its network back online. I will update this piece again once the company confirms its network is fully restored.
