ATT Outage Leaves Thousands Without Service

Widespread Outage Affects Cellphone Service

Many AT&T customers were left without cellphone service Thursday morning due to a widespread outage that began in the early hours. The outage affected customers in multiple states, including California, Texas, and Florida.

Cybersecurity Company Not Impacted

AT&T initially said that the outage was not caused by a cyberattack, but a cybersecurity company said that it was investigating the possibility that the outage was caused by a DDoS attack. A DDoS attack is a type of cyberattack that floods a website or server with so much traffic that it becomes unavailable.

Tens of Thousands of Customers Affected

AT&T later said that an initial review did not point to a cyberattack, but the outage still left tens of thousands of customers without service. The outage also affected 911 calls in some areas, as customers were unable to reach emergency services.

Customers Report Outages

More than 74,000 AT&T customers reported outages on the digital-service tracking site DownDetector on Thursday morning. The outages were reported in major cities across the United States, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, and Miami.