The major news of the day was the AT&T outage that happened early Thursday morning. This affected not only AT&T subscribers but also those using MVNOs like Cricket, which rely on AT&T’s network. While Verizon and T-Mobile confirmed that their networks were unaffected, users of these carriers were unable to connect with friends and family on AT&T, giving the impression that all three major carriers were down.
The outage caused concern among consumers, with some worrying about not being able to make 911 calls. One police department even received numerous calls from people testing if they could reach the police. There was also speculation about a possible cyber attack as local governments faced disruptions and the NYPD reported issues with their communication devices connected to AT&T.
In a recent update, AT&T stated that the outage was caused by an incorrect process during network expansion and not a cyber attack. However, this explanation has not completely ruled out the possibility of a cyber attack, which is currently being investigated by authorities.
The FCC and FBI are actively involved in investigating the incident, along with other public safety authorities and providers. The White House National Security spokesman also commented on the situation but admitted that they don’t have all the answers yet.
An industry official suggested that the problem might be related to “peering,” which is how calls are handed off from one network to another. Despite this explanation, there is still concern about a potential cyber attack being at the root of this outage.
As a result of this incident, AT&T’s shares dropped on Thursday while the rest of the market was making new highs. This event serves as a reminder of just how essential smartphones have become in our daily lives and highlights the importance of reliable connectivity for everyone.
Overall, it’s clear that this outage had far-reaching effects and raised important questions about network reliability and security in today’s interconnected world. We will continue to monitor developments in this story as more information becomes available.
