A nationwide service outage affecting multiple cell phone providers hit North Texas early this morning, causing thousands to lose the ability to make calls or text.
According to Downdetector, companies such as AT&T, Verizon, Cricket Wireless, T-Mobile and Boost Mobile all experienced problems around the same time, beginning just after 2 a.m. However, many more outages were likely, as the website only tracks only self-reported outages.
The Dallas Morning News reported that this morning Dallas-based AT&T, experienced over 60,000 outages across various locations such as Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Atlanta and Chicago. The outage also impacted the company's FirstNet network, utilized by emergency services.
Over the past few days, AT&T experienced intermittent outages, including a temporary 911 outage in certain areas of the southeastern United States. While occasional outages are not uncommon nationwide, extended outages such as this are exceptionally rare. While AT&T acknowledged the widespread outage, no reason for the system failure was provided, CNN reported.
“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning. We are working urgently to restore service to them,” AT&T told CNN in a statement. “We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored.”
In addition to AT&T, other carriers were impacted as well. Verizon experienced more than 3,000 outages, while T-Mobile had over 1,000. Cricket Wireless reported over 11,000 outages, and Boost Mobile encountered more than 450 outages.
The Plano Police Department posted on social media early this morning, warning residents about the outage and urging them not to test their cell service by calling 911. If an actual emergency occurs try calling 911 from a landline. The department also told residents to be patient as the service is restored, as sporadic outages may occur throughout the day.
Frisco Police also acknowledged the outage on social media.
As of publishing, reports were still being filed for all providers but lessened drastically.
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