AT&T’s wireless network appears to be dealing with a major outage. The carrier on Thursday confirmed to CNET that it’s suffering from “wireless service interruptions.”
“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning,” a spokesperson said. “We are working urgently to restore service to them. We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored.”
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When on Wi-Fi, you can still make calls and send messages through services like Apple’s iMessage and FaceTime, and Meta’s WhatsApp. AT&T also offers Wi-Fi calling that allows you to place calls over a Wi-Fi network using your regular number if you already have the feature enabled on your device.
As of 11 a.m. ET, the service did appear to be returning for some. In an updated statement, the company said that service has been restored to 75% of its network.
“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning,” the company said. “Our network teams took immediate action and so far three-quarters of our network has been restored. We are working as quickly as possible to restore service to remaining customers.”
It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the outage, how widespread it was or when all services might return to normal. Reports on social media suggested the outage was widespread with Downdetector, a website where users can report issues with websites and services, showing a spike in problems with AT&T beginning around 4 a.m. ET across the country.
AT&T said that its first responder network, known as FirstNet, was operating during the outage.
“Early this morning, service was affected for some subscribers across the country. The team took immediate action, prioritizing restoration of public safety’s communications, and service is currently running normally across the FirstNet network,” the company said.
“As always, we take our responsibility for delivering effective communications for the public safety community seriously and are committed to network stability and transparency. An assessment of this event is underway, and we will continue to keep you updated as we learn more.”
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While reports suggested that issues were also affecting the networks of Verizon and T-Mobile, both carriers confirmed to CNET that their respective offerings were fine.
“We did not experience an outage. Our network is operating normally,” a T-Mobile spokesperson said. “Down Detector is likely reflecting challenges our customers were having attempting to connect to users on other networks.”
“Verizon’s network is operating normally,” a Verizon spokesperson said. “Some customers experienced issues this morning when calling or texting with customers served by another carrier. We are continuing to monitor the situation.”
CNET will update as we learn more.
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