A widespread cellular outage has been affecting thousands of AT&T users across the United States, leading to massive disruptions in calls, text messages, and even emergency services in major cities like San Francisco. Around 8:15 a.m. ET, there were more than 73,000 incidents which were reported on Downdetector, an outage-tracking website.
AT&T's Response
In response to the outage, AT&T Inc., an American multinational telecommunications holding company accepted the disruption and they were assuring customers that they are working towards restoring the services soon. They further recommended using the US to switch to Wi-Fi calling as an alternative until the situation normalizes and the services resume.
Impact on emergency services in the US:
The outage has severely impacted the lives of people staying in the US, as they are unable to reach emergency services, including 911. The San Francisco Fire Department also confirmed the issue on social media, where they highlighted the challenge faced by AT&T wireless customers who have been trying to make and receive calls, particularly on emergency helplines like 911.
The AT&T cellular outage highlights the critical reliance on mobile networks for communication, particularly in case of emergencies. As the service providers of the United States, have stated that they are working on resolving the issue, which has been affecting the users. Furthermore, they are encouraged to explore alternative communication methods like using Wi-Fi calling.
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