Telecommunications company AT&T, announced late Tuesday that the issue preventing calls to other wireless carriers had been resolved. However, they have yet to disclose the cause behind the outage.
Responding to the outage, AT&T stated that the problem which was impacting calls to other wireless carriers had been rectified. “The issue disrupting calls between carriers has been resolved. We collaborated with the other carrier to find a solution and appreciate our customers patience during this period.,” AT&T said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, following complaints of users being unable to complete calls to other networks, major U.S wireless carries — AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile — began investigating the matter, which, many speculated, could be linked to a cyberattack. The incident also prompted a response from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), triggering an investigation into the matter.
“We’re aware of reports that consumers in multiple states are unable to make wireless calls and we are currently investigating,” tweeted the official FCC account while addressing the multiple complaints received by them.
Nationwide Call Disruptions: What Happened?
According to reports, several users of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile were struggling to make phone calls across different carriers. In response to the complaints, AT&T stated that the disturbance was a “part of a broader, nationwide issue”.
“There is a nationwide issue that is affecting the ability of customers to complete calls between carriers. We are working closely with Verizon to determine the nature of the issue and what actions need to be taken, ” AT&T said, The Global News reported.
Meanwhile, Verizon confirmed that while their network was functioning as normal, some users in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest were facing issues when attempting to call or text customers on other networks. In a statement, Verizon stated that they were aware of the issue and are monitoring the situation.
T-Mobile also addressed the situation, stating that they were not directly experiencing an outage but, there was noticeable activity related to outages with other providers as seen on Downdetector.com. This could suggest that T-Mobile customers might be encountering issues when connecting with users from different networks.
The real-time outage tracker Downdetector.com logged over 2,300 reports by late Tuesday afternoon, highlighting significant disruption in major urban areas including Brooklyn, Chicago, and Philadelphia.
AT&T Issue Resolved, But What Caused the Outage?
While the issue has been resolved, the reason behind the outage has not been disclosed. This gives space to speculation as to the reason behind the said outage, which evidently impacted users nationwide. This could be a technical issue, there has been a recent increase in cyberattacks in the telecommunications sector, with many companies being prime targets of the hacker community.
Earlier this year, there was another disruption that stirred concerns. Back in February, the FCC and New York Attorney General Letitia James began investigating an AT&T outage that impacted over 70,000 customers and persisted for over 10 hours. There were initial worries that this might have been the result of a cyberattack. However, AT&T clarified that the issue was due to a software update, thereby dismissing the cyberattack concerns.
However, in March, AT&T experienced a data breach, with personal information belonging to 73 million current or former customers leaked online. The U.S. telecom giant stated that the data, including addresses, social security numbers, and passcodes, was found on the dark web.
Although AT&T had not found evidence that the data was stolen, it engaged cybersecurity experts to conduct an investigation. In response to the incident, the company has reset customer passcodes and urged individuals to remain alert by monitoring their account activities and credit reports.
The compromised data, dating back to 2019 or earlier, impacted 7.6 million current customers and 65.4 million former account holders. It encompassed details like full names, email addresses, and dates of birth. However, AT&T confirmed that no financial information was disclosed in the said leak.