/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/dmn/LE6OCMWTJKUQZZWMZ3MQLJVOBY.jpg)
A massive cellular outage struck thousands of customers Thursday morning, disrupting phone calls, text messages and internet access.
Dallas-based AT&T appeared the most hard-hit, with more than 73,000 customers reporting outages, according to outage tracking site DownDetector. Customers also reported outages for Verizon, T-Mobile and Cricket Wireless, although they were not as widespread.
Here’s what we know.
Cell service outages
The outage is affecting cell users in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Chicago, New York City and Los Angeles, among other cities. Problems were first reported around 2:30 a.m., according to DownDetector, which tracks customer reports of disruptions.
AT&T has not yet said when services will be restored or what triggered the disruption.
“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning. We are working urgently to restore service to them,” AT&T said in a statement to The Dallas Morning News. “We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored.”
On its website, the company said some customers are having trouble making or receiving calls, and the company’s customer service is experiencing long hold times. “We apologize for this inconvenience and we are working to resolve this issue.”
Both Verizon and T-Mobile have said the outages are not directly affecting their networks, but customers trying to reach other carriers are experiencing issues. “We are continuing to monitor the situation,” Verizon said in a statement.
Emergency services
North Texas police departments said the outages have not affected emergency services.
Both Dallas and Fort Worth said they were aware of and monitoring the outages, but residents should be able to call 911 as usual. “We are still available for your emergency needs,” Fort Worth police said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
ERCOT spokeswoman Trudi Webster said the grid was operating under normal conditions. DFW Airport also has not been affected.
Some departments nationwide reported issues. Massachusetts state police implored people to stop calling 911 to test their cell service.
“Many 911 centers in the state are getting flooded w/ calls from people trying to see if 911 works from their cell phone,” the department said on X. “Please do not do this.”
SOS
Some users are seeing “SOS” at the top of their phones.
According to Apple’s support center, if you see “No Service” or “Searching” in the status bar on your iPhone or iPad, your device isn’t connected to a cellular network. If you see “SOS” or “SOS only” in the status bar, your device can still make emergency calls.
People owning an iPhone 13 or earlier devices won’t get the SOS indicator but will see a “No service” indicator, instead.
Jessica Roberts is a seasoned business writer who deciphers the intricacies of the corporate world. With a focus on finance and entrepreneurship, she provides readers with valuable insights into market trends, startup innovations, and economic developments.
