Rosana Hughes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
(TNS)
AT&T’s network is experiencing widespread outages across the country Thursday morning, knocking out cellular service for tens of thousands, according to outage tracker DownDetector.
The outages appear to be affecting users in major cities, including Atlanta, New York City, Chicago and others. Other carriers’ users appear to also be experiencing problems, but AT&T is the most affected.
In a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, AT&T acknowledged the disruptions but did not share information on what may be the cause.
“We are working urgently to restore service to them,” the statement read. “We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored.”
Atlanta police said that the city’s E-911 system is still able to receive inbound calls and make outbound calls.
“AT&T cellular customers are able to dial Atlanta’s E-911; however, they are unable to make outbound calls,” officials said.
Mayor Andre Dickens also acknowledged the outage and said the city is “gathering information to determine how (we) can assist in resolving this issue.”
E-911 services are also still working in in Cobb County, spokesperson Ross Cavitt said, but officials are advising people to text 911, use Wi-Fi calling or other alternatives if callers are experiencing outages.
”(911 operators) are getting some calls where they can’t hear the caller, so they are sending someone out to check (on the callers),” Cavitt said.
Other crucial county systems operate on FirstNet, which is not impacted, he added.
Users began reporting loss of service shortly before 4 a.m., DownDetector shows. The website tracks outages by user-submitted reports. By 8:30 a.m., 73,000 customers had reported a lack of service.
Customers of Verizon, T-Mobile, and many smaller U.S. carriers have also reported issues, though reports have not been as prevalent.
In a statement, T-Mobile said its networks have not experienced an outage.
“Our network is operating normally,” a company spokesperson said. “Down Detector is likely reflecting challenges our customers were having attempting to connect to users on other networks.”
Verizon said its 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.
As users await service restoration, apps that use Wi-Fi to communicate rather than cellular data are an alternative. This includes social media apps, iMessage on iPhones, WhatsApp and other online messenger services.
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