The AT&T Down Detection Incidents: Response to a Global Outage, Flooding, and Anisotropy

“We are actively engaged and monitoring this. San Francisco’s call center is still operational. If you are an AT&T customer and cannot get through to 911, then please try calling from a landline. If that is not an option then please try and get a hold of a friend or family member of yours who is a customer of another carrier and request them to call the police on your behalf. Do not call or text 911 to simply test your phone service,” the department said.

Downdetector said that Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Chicago, Indianapolis, New York, Miami and Charlotte reported the highest number of outages. Houston had more than 2,000 reports and New York had more than 1,300.

Cell network issues can happen with any number of causes, from weather to technical issues to cut wires. T-Mobile experienced a massive service interruption last year, which it blamed on a third-party fiber interruption issue. That issue appeared more self-contained, though, than the ripple effects that seemingly caused AT&T’s problems.

It is hard to know when the AT&T outage might be over. Over 60,000 people were still reporting issues by 11 am, but the Down Detection incidents had begun to diminish.

Similarly, a Verizon spokesperson said over email that “Verizon’s network is operating normally. Some customers experienced issues this morning when calling or texting with customers served by another carrier.”

It started around 3:30 in the morning on the East Coast, reports flooding in about an AT&T service outage. Customers complained on Downdetector when services went down, and the site will detect when services go down.