AT&T's network suffered widespread outages across the U.S. Thursday morning, knocking out cell phone service and the internet, according to tracking site DownDetector.
Some Verizon and T-Mobile customers also reported outages, but it doesn't appear to be as widespread as AT&T's.
AT&T experienced more than 32,000 outages. It was reported by a customer around 4 a.m. ET Thursday. The number of reports decreased once, but has rapidly increased again to over 50,000. Around 7 a.m., most of the problems were reported in Houston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Atlanta, the site said.
That number jumped to more than 71,000 just before 8 a.m. ET.
As of 7 a.m. Thursday, T-Mobile was reporting just over 1,100 outages and Verizon was reporting about 3,000 outages.
It's unclear what triggered the service interruption.
AT&T acknowledged the issue Thursday morning, saying, “Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning.”
“We are working urgently to restore service to them. We recommend using Wi-Fi calling until service is restored,” the company said.
At X, the company has been responding to customers reporting problems with their cell phone service across the country.
Verizon said Thursday morning that the outage is not directly impacting its network, but it is impacting customers who are trying to connect to another carrier experiencing the issue.
T-Mobile also said earlier Thursday that its network was not experiencing any outages and was operating normally, and that Downdetector numbers reflected customers trying to access users on other networks. announced that it is highly possible.
The power outage has raised concerns as some people may not be able to call 911 in an emergency.
san francisco fire department said in X AT&T Wireless said its customers are aware of an issue affecting the ability to make and receive calls, including 911.
“The San Francisco 911 Center remains operational,” the office said. “If you have AT&T and can't reach 911, try calling from your landline. If that doesn't work, contact a friend or family member who is a customer of another carrier and call them for you. Please ask them to call 911.”
Similarly, Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications,Virginia Prince William County Police Department and North Carolina Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department issued a warning to Company X warning the public about the power outage, acknowledging that some customers were temporarily unable to contact 911.
This is a developing story. Please check back for the latest information.
