On Tuesday, AT&T announced that a “nationwide issue” affecting calls between different carriers had been resolved. This wasn’t a complete outage, but it was enough to cause some major headaches for customers trying to make cross-carrier calls.
Here’s what went down. AT&T, in a statement released around 7:45 p.m. Eastern Time, confirmed that the problem had been fixed. “The interoperability issue between carriers has been resolved. We collaborated with the other carrier to find a solution and appreciate our customers’ patience during this period,” the company said.
Now, it’s important to note that this issue didn’t affect everything. Calls to 911 and calls between customers of the same carrier (like AT&T to AT&T) were unaffected. Text messages and the FirstNet wireless broadband network for first responders also continued to function normally. So, while the problem was significant, it didn’t completely cripple the network.
Earlier in the day, AT&T mentioned that they were working closely with Verizon to address the problem. Verizon stated that its network was operating normally but acknowledged that “some customers, primarily in the Northeast and Midwest, are experiencing issues when calling or texting with customers served by another carrier.” This clearly showed the problem was more about the interaction between different networks rather than an internal failure.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also stepped in, indicating they were investigating the matter. They released a statement saying, “We’re aware of reports that consumers in multiple states are unable to make wireless calls, and we are currently investigating.”
During the disruption, many customers took to social media, specifically X (formerly known as Twitter), to express their frustration. One user directed a message at Verizon, complaining, “I pay too much to not be able to make a phone call.” Another AT&T customer shared, “What’s up with y’all today! My phone decided to stop making outgoing calls. Says it’s unable to connect.”
This recent incident comes just over three months after a significant outage impacted AT&T customers, leaving about 50,000 people without service at its peak. That previous outage was attributed to a process error.
Interestingly, while T-Mobile reported that they were not experiencing an outage, they acknowledged that issues with other carriers could affect their customers trying to connect to those networks. The website Downdetector, which tracks outages, noted a spike in reported issues for both AT&T and Verizon on Tuesday, further highlighting the extent of the problem.
