5 key points regarding the extensive AT&T network disruption
Due to a nearly twelve-hour interruption of the AT&T network on Thursday, tens of thousands of people in the United States had problems making phone calls, sending texts, reaching emergency services, and even accessing the internet.
Additionally, at least one police department claimed that its 911 line was temporarily overrun with people dialling their cell phones to test whether or not their calls would be received.
An outage that occurred on a significant cell network at one point affected more than seventy thousand customers. It is logical that this would cause concern.
People are becoming increasingly reliant on their mobile devices for a variety of purposes, including but not limited to maintaining contact with their families and colleagues, obtaining directions, accessing the internet, and performing two-factor authentication for website logins. This is in addition to more serious responsibilities, such as calling for assistance while under threat.
Despite the fact that there is now no evidence to suggest that hostile actors were responsible for the outage, the occurrence swiftly generated questions about whether or not the outage may have been caused by malicious behaviour and whether or not it could even offer a continuing threat to mobile networks in the United States.
At about three o’clock in the afternoon Eastern Time, AT&T had finally restored wireless service to all of its customers, and the firm expressed its “sincere” apologies to its customers.
Everything you need to know about the power outage is as follows:
Who was this affecting?
There is a possibility that you did not notice the problem on Thursday if you are a client of Verizon or T-Mobile and you do not have any friends or family members who use AT&T. This is because the problem did not affect those competing providers.
However, beginning early on Thursday morning, thousands of AT&T customers began experiencing problems with their mobile devices, including the inability to make phone calls, send and receive texts, and access the internet. More than 74,000 AT&T customers reported experiencing service interruptions on the digital-service tracking website known as DownDetector at one point. The figure only includes outages that customers themselves reported, so the actual number of customers affected was almost certainly higher.
AT&T has announced that service has been restored following a widespread outage. Investigators are looking into the matter.
Prior to the event that occurred on Thursday, AT&T had experienced periodic outages throughout the week, including a temporary interruption of 911 service in certain regions of the southeastern United States on Thursday. Despite the fact that there are occasional outages in certain regions, lengthy outages across the entire nation are quite uncommon.
Within a few hours on Thursday, the number of customers who experienced the outage began to rapidly decline. And by approximately three o’clock in the afternoon Eastern Time, the company said that the problem had been completely fixed.
On Thursday, a number of local governments announced that the outage at AT&T was causing interruptions and that, in some instances, AT&T customers were unable to call emergency services and would instead be required to do so via a landline or a cell phone from a competing carrier. Officials from the New York Police Department told CNN that they were unable to use their AT&T phones to make calls or access their email on Thursday morning unless they were linked to Wi-Fi.
A spokesperson for AT&T, on the other hand, indicated that the company’s FirstNet network continued to function normally despite the interruption. In addition to providing coverage for first responders, such as police and fire agencies, FirstNet is marketed as a more robust network than the commercial network offered by AT&T. It makes use of both its own infrastructure and the more extensive network that AT&T provides.
What led to the lack of power?
AT&T stated in an update on Thursday evening that it does not think the disruption was the result of a cyberattack.
As a result of our preliminary investigation, we have come to the conclusion that the outage that occurred today was not the result of a cyber assault but rather the application and execution of an improper process that was utilized while we were extending our network. “In order to guarantee that we continue to provide the service that our customers deserve, we are continuing our investigation into the outage that occurred today,” the firm stated in a post.
In response to the occurrence, what statements did officials from the government make?
The incident is being investigated by a number of different federal entities. Government agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Homeland Security are included in this category.
According to a statement that was shown on X on Thursday afternoon, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stated, “We are aware of the reported wireless outages, and our Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau is actively investigating.” Currently, we are in communication with AT&T as well as public safety agencies, including FirstNet, in addition to other service providers.
Regarding the outage, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a statement to CNN stating that it is in communication with AT&T. In addition, the FBI statement stated that “we will respond appropriately in the event that we become aware of any malicious activity.”
On Thursday, the White House also sent a response, stating that federal agencies are in communication with AT&T regarding network failures but that the White House does not yet have all of the answers regarding the factors that led to the interruptions.
John Kirby, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Policy, stated that the study was still ongoing. Kirby stated on Thursday afternoon that “the bottom line is that we do not have all the answers to that.” Therefore, we are exerting a great deal of effort in order to determine whether or not we are able to discover the truth about what took place.
In what manner did AT&T react?
AT&T has stated that it has taken “immediate action” in order to restore approximately three-quarters of the network by approximately lunchtime Eastern time. About twelve hours after the disruptions had initially begun, AT&T made the announcement that it had completely restored service to all the customers who had been affected.
There was a statement released by the corporation that read, “We sincerely apologize to them (customers).” “Maintaining our customers’ connections continues to be our top priority, and we are taking measures to guarantee that they will not have to go through this again in the future.”
Analysts in the telecom sector believe that AT&T may be subject to fines as a result of the 911 disruptions; however, this is not a fully established possibility.
In the meantime, a large number of irate consumers flooded AT&T with inquiries on social media and criticized the business for what appeared to be a lack of clarity over what was going on and when service would be restored. AT&T’s official customer support account on X encouraged customers to interact with the company directly by sending them direct messages.
Since the interruption occurred on Thursday, the share price of AT&T finished the day with a decrease of more than two percent. This occurred on the same day that the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached new highs.
What does this imply for the safety of mobile networks in the United States?
According to federal authorities and an official from the business, there is no indication of a cyberattack. According to the person from the industry who spoke with CNN, the issue seems to be connected to peering, which refers to the process by which calls are transferred from one network to the next.
New evidence that points to an attack might become available at some point in the future. But it is too soon to determine for sure.
