Blog

Tens of thousands of AT&T customers reported problems with their cell phone service on Thursday morning, with a map of the outage showing people affected across the U.S.

Customers of other networks also said they experienced problems, but rival carriers Verizon, T-Mobile and UScellular said their networks were operational and noted that their users were probably having difficulty reaching people on AT&T’s network. 

As of about 11 a.m. ET on Thursday, AT&T said it had made progress in restoring its network, wth about three-quarters of it operating normally. 

“We are working as quickly as possible to restore service to remaining customers,” it added.

AT&T outage map

As of noon ET on Thursday, Downdetector had about 40,000 reports of service issues from AT&T customers, down from a peak of more than 70,000 reports. Most of the complaints were focused on problems with mobile phones or wireless service. 

Outages were highest in Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Chicago, New York, Miami, Dallas, Atlanta and Indianapolis, according to Downdetector.

What caused the AT&T outage?

AT&T hasn’t disclosed the cause of the outage, but the problem has snarled 911 centers, with some law enforcement officials noting that some people were calling the emergency number to test whether their phones worked. 

Officials urged people to refrain from calling 911 to test their phones. 

“Many 911 centers in the state are getting flooded w/ calls from people trying to see if 911 works from their cell phone. Please do not do this,” the Massachusetts State Police wrote on X, the former Twitter.

—With reporting by Taylor Johnston.