AT&T outage: Service restored to all customers

Talia Naquin
·3 min read

(WJW) — People in Northeast Ohio and across the country reported issues with their cell service on Thursday.

The cellular carrier announced just after 3 p.m. that service had been restored to all affected customers.

“We have restored wireless service to all our affected customers,” reads a statement on the company’s website. “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.”

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According to DownDetector.com, a company that tracks issues with internet services and websites, more than 73,000 AT&T users had reported issues at the outage’s peak, The Associated Press reported. The outages started at about 3:30 a.m.

In an update posted at 11:15 a.m., AT&T said on their website that about three-quarters of their network had been restored.

“We are working as quickly as possible to restore service to remaining customers,” read the statement.

Impacted customers were reportedly unable to make or receive calls. Some people were also unable to text. Some iPhone users noted an SOS message on their status bar indicating their phone couldn’t connect to a network, but that emergency calls were still available.

The carrier encouraged subscribers to enable Wi-Fi calling in order to make calls.

  • To enable Wi-Fi calling on an Android phone, navigate to the Phone app, tap the kebab menu (the three vertical dots), then select “Settings,” then “Calls.” A switch button on that menu enables Wi-Fi Calling.

Outages for other carriers surged around the same time, with customers saying they couldn’t make or receive calls, text, or access mobile internet. According to DownDetector, Cricket Wireless had more than 13,000 outages; Verizon had more than 4,000; T-Mobile had more than 1,800; and Boost Mobile had about 700.

“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,” reads a statement from Verizon.

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T-Mobile released a similar statement that 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.”

The cause of the outage is still unknown.

Eric Goldstein, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency executive assistant director, said the agency is aware of the outage reports and is “working closely with AT&T to understand the cause of the outage and its impacts.”

Several local police departments warned residents the issue may impact their ability to call 911.

The Stark County Sheriff’s Department wrote on Facebook, “Please make arrangements to use alternative communication methods if necessary.”

AT&T is the nation’s largest cell service carrier, with more than 240 million subscribers.

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