AT&T wireless service restored after nationwide outage

Madie MacDonald
·2 min read

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY/AP) – AT&T said its customers once again have wireless service Thursday afternoon following a nationwide outage.

“We have restored wireless access to all our affected customers,” according to a media statement from AT&T just before 4 p.m. “We sincerely apologize to them. Keeping our customers connected remains our top priority, and we are taking steps to ensure our customers do not experience this again in the future.”

AT&T said it did not expect further updates on the nationwide outage.

Service for customers was reported down around 3:30 a.m. According to the site downdetector.com, the outages peaked at around 73,000 reported incidents.

AT&T, which is the nation’s largest carrier with more than 240 million subscribers, released the following statement earlier Thursday about the outage:

“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.”

One local AT&T customer, Thomas Williams, found out at 5 a.m. about the outage when he tried to call a colleague.

“It’s not working; I don’t have any, so I don’t have any service,” Williams said. “Nothing. And my bill is paying. I don’t understand. I’ve been messing with it all day. All this morning. Excuse me. And it has been working. I’ve been trying to call AT&T, and all I’m getting is a recording.”

Apple told its customers they should still be able to make emergency calls if “SOS” or “SOS only” is seen in the status bar. However, reports began coming in that many areas around the country have not been able to make emergency calls.

Virginia Beach said Thursday if any customer is experiencing issues with calling 911 to call their non-emergency line at 757-385-5000.

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Downdetector showed that Cricket Wireless, which is owned by AT&T, had more than 9,000 outages Thursday. Verizon had more than 2,000 outages and T-Mobile had more than 1,400 outages. Boost Mobile had about 700 outages.

So far, no reason has been given for the outages.

T-Mobile and Verizon said they did not experience an outage.

Check with WAVY.com for updates.

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