Cellphone service down today? Here’s how to make calls through your Wi-Fi

Customers of AT&T, the country’s largest wireless provider, reported widespread outages on Thursday.

Some AT&T customers saw SOS messages displayed in the status bar on their cellphones. The message indicates that the device is having trouble connecting to their cellular provider’s network.

That can be a big problem in an emergency.

AT&T urged customers to connect to Wi-Fi to use their phones. Wi-Fi calling is a built-in feature on most Android devices and iPhones and can be turned on under the phone’s settings.

“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,” AT&T said in a statement.

On an iPhone, go into Settings and click Cellular. The next page should include a choice labeled Wi-Fi Calling. Click it if it’s not already enabled.

On Android phones, click the Phone app, then click Settings. Tap Calls and you should see a Wi-Fi Calling option.

If Wi-Fi isn’t available, there are few options for cellphone users. It’s possible to switch services if a phone is unlocked, but that requires signing up online and porting your phone number.

Some apps, including Google Maps, have limited service offline. Payment apps also do not use a phone’s cell service to work and should also be useable.

Downdetector, which tracks service outages for cellular, internet, cable and satellite providers, reported a spike in cellular outages by customers of AT&T, Cricket Wireless, Verizon, T-Mobile and other service providers on Thursday morning.

Outages were being reported in Florida, along with other areas of the country, and the Florida Sheriff’s Association tweeted a message urging affected phone users to follow their local sheriff’s office for updates on how to report emergencies if they have no phone service.

AT&T had more than 73,000 outages around 9:30 a.m. ET, in locations including Houston, Atlanta and Chicago. The outages began at approximately 3:30 a.m. ET. The carrier has more than 240 million subscribers, the country’s largest.

The number of outages reported by Downdetector declined to fewer than 60,000 by 11 a.m. The site shows the number of outages at other carriers declining as well.

AT&T posted a statement on its website at 11:15 a.m. saying that service has been restored to three-quarters of its network. “We are working as quickly as possible to restore service to remaining customers,” the message said.

Downdetector showed that 927 AT&T users in the South Florida metro area reported outages by about 9 a.m. That number had fallen to 660 just before noon.

So far, no reason has been given for the outages. But Lee McKnight, an associate professor in the iSchool at Syracuse University, believes the most likely cause of the outage is a cloud misconfiguration, or human error. “A possible but far less likely outcome is an intentional malicious hack of ATT’s network, but the diffuse pattern of outages across the country suggests something more fundamental,” McKnight said in an emailed statement.

ABC News reported that “multiple agencies, including the FBI, are investigating to determine whether it was the result of a cyber attack, a hack or a technical malfunction.”

Cricket Wireless had more than 13,000, the outage tracking website said Thursday. Verizon had more than 4,000 outages and T-Mobile had more than 1,800 outages. Boost Mobile had about 700 outages.

“Verizon’s network is operating normally. Some customers experienced issues this morning when calling or texting with customers served by another carrier. We are continuing to monitor the situation,” Verizon said.

Locally, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said it was not experiencing any issues but urged anyone with problems to text 911.

Boynton Beach Police released a similar statement on X, saying that local residents might have trouble calling.

“Some individuals may be experiencing cell phone outages, potentially hindering their ability to call 911 in emergencies,” the agency said.

The agency suggests texting 911, calling the non-emergency line, or using the S.O.S function from your iPhone.

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office said it was not experiencing significant impacts and continued to monitor the outage.

“If AT&T customers are having difficulty contacting 911 or BSO’s non-emergency number, please either try to make your call over Wi-Fi, use a landline or use the cellphone of an individual who has a different cellular carrier,” spokesperson Carey Codd said in an email.

T-Mobile said that it 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,” T-Mobile said.

Some iPhone users have seen SOS messages displayed in the status bar on their cellphones. The message indicates that the device is having trouble connecting to their cellular provider’s network, but it can make emergency calls through other carrier networks, according to Apple Support.

Meanwhile, politicians wasted no time using the outage to make political points.

On his X (formerly Twitter) account, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio posted: “I don’t know the cause of the AT&T outage. But I do know it will be 100 times worse when #China launches a cyber attack on America on the eve of a #Taiwan invasion. And it won’t be just cell service they hit, it will be your power, your water and your bank.”

South Florida Sun Sentinel staff writers Ron Hurtibise and Shira Moolten contributed to this news article.