A spokesperson for AT&T issued the following statement to CNN:
We are working to resolve a software issue that may be impacting the ability of a limited number of our customers to connect to our wireless network. Keeping our customers connected is our top priority, so we appreciate your patience while we work to resolve this issue.
AT&T spokesman, August 2024
Below is the original story from August 28, 2024:
Thousands of iPhone owners who use wireless carrier AT&T are unable to make calls, send messages, or use data as the company faces one of its worst outages in a long time.
As of 6:21 p.m. EDT, there were about 5,300 complaints on the outage monitoring website Downdetector.
The outage mainly affects the southeast, with iPhones switching to SOS mode, per The Mobile ReportThis does not mean that the problem only occurs on iOS.
AT&T has confirmed the issue and said it was caused by a critical fault in a switching center. However, the lack of connectivity is not the only problem it has caused. Other issues that have cropped up include the inability to issue new SIM cards and service delays.
AT&T management is struggling to keep up with the volume of incoming calls, and many users have reported being given wait times of several hours.
The company has not provided a timeline for resolving the issue and is still trying to find a solution. It is expected that it may take several more hours before the issue is resolved and service is restored.
The timing of the outage couldn’t have been worse, as most of the company’s senior technical support staff finish work at 5 p.m.
The FCC is also investigating an outage in February that lasted more than 12 hours and prevented more than 92 million calls from going through.