AT&T customers in Pennsylvania, including the Philadelphia area, faced significant service disruptions on Thursday morning, impacting their ability to place calls, send texts, and access the internet. Reports of network outages also emerged among Verizon and T-Mobile users, though these were notably less widespread. Both Verizon and T-Mobile have clarified that their networks were operational, attributing any perceived disruptions to difficulties in connecting with AT&T’s network.
AT&T customers affected by the outage are advised to enable Wi-Fi calling if they have access to a Wi-Fi network, which would allow them to continue communicating via calls and texts despite the cellular network issues. Over 74,000 outage reports were logged on DownDetector, a website tracking digital service outages, though this number reflects only self-reported cases. The surge in outage reports reached its peak in the 9 am ET hour but appeared to stabilize shortly thereafter.
The company has publicly acknowledged the issue, stating that they are urgently working to restore service. However, AT&T has not provided a detailed explanation for the outage or an estimated timeframe for when services will be fully operational again. They recommend customers use Wi-Fi calling in the meantime and are addressing complaints through direct messages on social media.
Speculation about the cause of the outage suggests it might be related to problems with peering, the process by which calls are transferred across networks. There is currently no indication that the outage was caused by a cyberattack or any malicious intent. This incident follows other recent, less extensive outages, including a temporary disruption of 911 services in some southeastern parts of the United States, but nationwide outages of this scale are extremely rare.