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By Dolores Chan, Dailymail.Com
February 22, 2024 21:37, Updated February 22, 2024 21:42
A CNN anchor implored viewers not to call 911 while an AT&T power outage left 70,000 people without phone coverage for hours.
Technology reporter Brian Fong appeared on CNN News Central Thursday morning and urged users not to make test calls to 911.
“Don’t call 911 just to see if you can get through, because you really need that bandwidth and capacity for a real emergency,” Huang said.
The spike in outages occurred around 4 a.m. ET and affected more than 700,000 users at AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and UScellular.
Phan’s message comes as Massachusetts State Police warns that its 911 call center is “inundated with so-called test calls.”
“We’ve also seen reports of people making test calls to 911 to see if they can connect if needed,” he said. Please don’t do that. ”
AT&T users reported the most problems, which jumped to 31,931 reports at 4:30 a.m. and rose to over 51,000 again just before 7:15 a.m.
Shortly after 11 a.m., AT&T announced that its teams were “working as quickly as possible” and had restored three-quarters of its network.
Local fire departments across the country reported that people were unable to make phone calls due to power outages, and 911 emergency services were affected.
Fan advised people to use “alternatives, such as a landline or cell phone that uses another network service such as Verizon or T-Mobile.”
Local authorities sometimes used social media to encourage people to contact the relevant police or fire departments.
The San Francisco Fire Department issued a statement saying it was aware of the issue and asking residents to try calling from landlines.
The department added, “If that is not possible, contact a friend or family member who is a customer of another carrier and ask them to call 911 on your behalf.”
The Flagler County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office said they are unable to receive phone calls, but text messages to 911 are being received.
The issue caused AT&T iPhone users to go into SOS mode and only be able to make calls to emergency services.
Cricket, also part of AT&T, reported 11,000 users were down, 2,800 Verizon customers suffered outages, and another 1,000 T-Mobile users were also affected. It is reported that there are.
Service disruptions have been reported in New York, Boston, Washington, Montreal, Honolulu, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Francisco.
The company has over 240 million subscribers, making it the largest in Japan.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are tracking what caused the disruption to service at AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and more than a dozen other cell phone providers.
Government agencies did not provide details, but security experts told DailyMail.com that the outage had the hallmarks of a hack.
A T-Mobile spokesperson told DailyMail.com that “no outages occurred.” Our network is working properly.
“Down Detector may reflect challenges our customers were having trying to connect to users on other networks.”
However, a Verizon spokesperson said, “Verizon’s network is operating normally.”
“This morning, some customers experienced issues making calls or texting with customers served by another carrier. We continue to monitor the situation.”
On social media, customers teased the company over the power outage, with some comparing it to the Netflix thriller “Leave the World Behind,” which includes all the technology failures as part of the plot. Some people even made memes about it.
Meanwhile, other customers expressed disdain for the outage and demanded refunds from the company.
No official reason has been given for the widespread decline in service, leading to growing speculation on social media that hackers may be behind the outages.
One person said, “It’s just SOS.” AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon are out. Do you want to leave global trends behind?
Another posted: “Are you guys ready to go see the movie ‘Leave the World Behind’ right now?” Or are you still holding out? AT&T/US Cell Phone Outage/SOS.
While some people made fun of the situation, other users demanded refunds from the company due to the power outage.
“AT&T needs to refund my money,” one user posted. This power outage is unacceptable! We’re going the hotspot route this morning. Take care. ‘
Another added: “I just paid my phone bill yesterday and now the power is out??” I want AT&T to give me a refund/discount or something. ”
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