Trying to Reach Out and Touch Someone by Phone? AT&T and Verizon Are Experiencing a Nationwide Service Outage

Somewhere in the United States, someone left a phone off the hook and brought down the nation’s voice telephone network.
Customers of AT&T and Verizon nationwide are reporting issues placing calls, both from mobile phones as well as landlines.
Verizon, the nation’s largest mobile operator, said in social media posts that “there’s no widespread Verizon outage,” while AT&T maintained radio silence in its social media posts on the issue.
Statements from both telecom companies implied that the outages had largely to do with their mobile networks but that didn’t appear to be completely accurate.
It soon became clear that even people using landlines are being affected by the non-existent outage.
Ernest Bondi, who runs a New Jersey-based importing company, told a reporter that he had been unable to reach an insurance company he does business with via its toll-free number, both from his office phone and his mobile phone. When trying to call the company, Bondi heard what the industry calls a Special Information Tone, or SIT, in this case for a call failure or network failure.
Bondi was far from alone.  A quick look at Down Detector, a website that reports the extent of service outages, showed that AT&T and Verizon went from the low single digits of problems reported in the early morning hours to thousands per hour after 12:30 p.m. EDT. The reports for T-Mobile during that period of time were only in the low hundreds.
The outage brought back memories of AT&T’s massive 12-hour outage in February of this year.
The massive disruption took down AT&T’s network for nearly 12 hours. The outage left thousands of AT&T customers in the United States unable to make place or receive telephone calls, send texts, access the Internet, and reach emergency services. The current outage is not having an impact on emergency services, AT&T said in a statement.
 
In a statement, AT&T said that the issue is “affecting the ability for customers to complete calls.” Verizon said that outage is affecting people who are trying to call or text people who use different mobile operators.
In addition, AT&T said that the issue is nationwide while Verizon said it appears to be affecting customers in the Northeast and Midwest.
“Verizon’s network is operating normally,” the company said in a statement. “Some customers, primarily in the Northeast and Midwest, are experiencing issues when calling or texting customers served by another carrier. We are continuing to monitor the situation.”
Later in the day, AT&T said that the carriers “are working together as quickly as possible to diagnose and resolve the issue.”
(Photo: Accura Media Group)