It wasn’t a cyberattack but a technical error that caused AT&T’s massive outage on Thursday, Feb 22. In a statement, AT&T said the outage began in the morning hours as the company worked to expand its network.
“Based on our initial review, we believe that today’s outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network, not a cyber attack,” the company’s statement read. “We are continuing our assessment of today’s outage to ensure we keep delivering the service that our customers deserve.”
Calls, texts, and even 911 calls were not going through for AT&T customers during the major cellular outage that swept across cities, including San Francisco. During the confusion, emergency services in some cities reported being overrun with calls of people testing whether they had service or not.
“Please do not do this. If you can successfully place a non-emergency call to another number via your cell service then your 911 service will also work,” Massachusetts State Police said in a post on X.
The cellular company reported some customer outages mid-morning; by noon, some turned into 58,000 incidents being reported, according to a CNBC report. AT&T said it restored service to all affected customers on Thursday afternoon, Feb. 22.
“We have restored wireless service to all our affected customers. We sincerely apologize to them,” AT&T said. “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.”
With the ongoing threat of cyberattacks, both the FBI and Homeland Security were investigating as reports came in.
