AT&T is experiencing a major outage across the U.S. today, with tens of thousands of customers reporting issues with the network on the website Downdetector. There are also complaints across Reddit, X, and other social media websites.
iPhone users and others with AT&T service are generally unable to make phone calls or send text messages due to the outage, which has persisted for many hours today. iPhone users may see "SOS" in the status bar, as the device cannot connect to AT&T's 5G network.
Apple explains what "SOS" means in a support document:
If you see SOS or "SOS only" in the status bar, your device isn't connected to a network, but you can still make emergency calls. This feature is available in Australia, Canada, and the United States.
Hey @ATT… why do I have no service… in the middle of a city pic.twitter.com/a0AHSHMpvi — Ian Zelbo (@ianzelbo) February 22, 2024
"Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning," reads a notice on AT&T's website. "We are working urgently to restore service to them. We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored."
As of 11:15 a.m. Eastern Time, AT&T said it had restored three-quarters of its network:
Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning. Our network teams took immediate action and so far three-quarters of our network has been restored. We are working as quickly as possible to restore service to remaining customers.
AT&T has not provided a reason for the outage, or a timeframe for full network restoration.
Verizon and T-Mobile both said their networks have remained fully operational today.
Update: Outage Resolved
As of 3:10 p.m. Eastern Time, AT&T said its network was fully operational again:
We have restored wireless service to all our affected customers. We sincerely apologize to them. Keeping our customers connected remains our top priority, and we are taking steps to ensure our customers do not experience this again in the future.
