AT&T users reported a widespread mobile network outage on Thursday morning, with tens of thousands of users reporting online that their phones showed no received signal and they were unable to call or text.
According to AT&T customer posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, and Downdetector.com, phone displays often showed “SOS” in place of a network signal indicator, indicating that the device can only make local emergency calls because the cellular network is down or unable to be reached. Downdetector, which provides data visualization based on crowd-sourced customer reports of service interruptions, tallied more than 70,000 reports of disrupted mobile service from AT&T customers, plus more than 10,000 from Cricket users who also rely on the AT&T network.
The Downdetector reports peaked between 8-9 a.m. and then began decreasing.
Cricket’s official support account on X posted: “Allow us to explain that there is a nationwide network incident impacting multiple services. It is Cricket’s top priority to restore service to full capacity as quickly and safely as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.”
AT&T said on its website that “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 carrier did not immediately indicate the geographic reach of the outage or number of customers impacted.
An AT&T spokesperson told RCR Wireless News shortly after 11 a.m. Eastern that while some customers’ service was disrupted, “Our network teams took immediate action and so far about three-quarters of our network has been restored. We are working as quickly as possible to restore service to remaining customers.”
While there were press reports that a small number of Verizon and T-Mobile US customers were also experiencing an outage, a Verizon spokesperson said that the Verizon network is operating normally. However, “some customers experienced issues this morning when calling or texting with customers served by another carrier. We are continuing to monitor the situation,” said the spokesperson via email.
T-Mobile US also issued a statement, saying, “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.”
