An outage on Thursday disrupted AT&T services for customers across the United States, affecting their ability to make calls, send texts, or use their phones.
The issue began around 4:30 am ET and impacted major cities such as Indianapolis, Louisville, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.
AT&T Response and Restoration Efforts
AT&T promptly acknowledged the problem and assured customers that they were working on resolving it.
While affected users could still make calls and send texts over Wi-Fi, the outage persisted. Other carriers like Verizon, T-Mobile, and Cricket Wireless also reported outages, albeit on a smaller scale.
By 11:15 a.m. ET on February 22, 2024, AT&T announced that three-quarters of its network had been restored, with efforts ongoing to fix the remaining issues.
After about four hours, AT&T confirmed the restoration of wireless service to all affected customers, expressing sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused.
Investigations and Findings
The outage impacted over 70,000 AT&T customers and raised concerns, prompting federal investigations by the FCC. However, investigations ruled out cyberattacks as the cause.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced an active investigation into the matter, stating their coordination with AT&T and other authorities.
AT&T clarified that the disruption resulted from an incorrect process during network expansion. Currently, AT&T’s 5G network serves over 290 million users nationwide, and the outage lasted for over 10 hours.
While AT&T faced the brunt of the outage, other carriers like Verizon and T-Mobile also experienced disruptions, emphasizing the importance of preparedness during service interruptions.
Addressing the network outage and restoration, AT&T posted:
Based on our initial review, we believe that today’s outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process during our network expansion, not a cyber attack.
We are continuing our assessment of today’s outage to ensure we maintain the service our customers deserve. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused and assure our customers that keeping them connected remains our top priority. We are taking steps to prevent similar occurrences in the future.