Telecommunications company AT&T is experiencing a nationwide service outage, with users reporting disruptions to text messages and calls that have yet to be resolved.
According to Downdetector.com, which tracks user reports of disruptions, reports began to spike at 3 a.m. Thursday morning and climbed to around 70,000 by 8 a.m. Reports have begun to decrease slightly as of 9 a.m. but remain high. There has been no indication of when services will be restored or what caused the initial disruption.
At 9:50 a.m., a public safety alert was sent out notifying users that the outage may affect 911 service.
According to Fox Business, most reported locations of customers impacted are in the south and southeast U.S. The Downdetector map of user reports shows outage hotspots around major cities such as Dallas, Houston and Atlanta.
The site also shows Verizon, T-Mobile and Cricket Wireless customers experiencing disruptions, though at what appears to be a much lower rate. Both Verizon and T-Mobile have claimed their networks are operating normally and that reported issues are likely from customers attempting to connect with users on other carriers.
At 8:13 a.m., AT&T’s X account responded to a user with the following statement: “We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience that is happening and 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.”
A handful of emergency service departments in the state have encouraged affected customers in need of assistance to messaging over Facebook or use a non-AT&T phone.
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