AT&T said the hours-long outage to its U.S. cellphone network Thursday appeared to be the result of a technical error, not a malicious attack.
AT&T, the giant in the telecommunications industry, faced a massive outage on its U.S. cellphone network on Thursday, leaving thousands of users without service for hours. The disruption, which began in the early hours of the morning, was eventually resolved, but not before causing significant inconvenience to customers across the country.
The company swiftly addressed the issue, attributing it to a technical error rather than a malicious cyber attack. According to AT&T, the outage resulted from an error in coding during network expansion efforts. The company, based in Dallas, emphasized that it was not a targeted attack on their systems.
"Based on our initial review, we believe that today’s outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network, not a cyber attack," stated AT&T.
The outage tracker Downdetector recorded a peak of approximately 73,000 reported incidents, with more than 58,000 outages reported around noon Eastern Time in cities like Houston, Atlanta, and Chicago. However, by 9 p.m. ET, the number of reported incidents had significantly dropped to fewer than 1,000.
Cricket Wireless, a subsidiary of AT&T, also experienced disruptions, with over 9,000 reported outages at one point. Reports of issues with other carriers, including Verizon and T-Mobile, surfaced, but these companies confirmed their networks were operational, suggesting the problems were linked to customers attempting to connect with AT&T users.
During the outage, some iPhone users observed SOS messages on their devices, indicating difficulty connecting to their cellular provider's network. Although emergency calls were still possible through other carrier networks, the disruption caused concern among users.
Government agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI, took note of the incident. The National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, confirmed that they were investigating the outage.
The FBI acknowledged its communication with AT&T and stated its readiness to respond if any malicious activity was discovered. Additionally, the outage prompted attention from Capitol Hill, with Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Bob Latta, Chair of the Communications and Technology Subcommittee, expressing their commitment to understanding the cause of the disruption and preventing future occurrences.