AT&T said its Thursday outage that affected thousands of customers nationwide was caused by a technical error, not a cyberattack.
The outage left many without service and disrupted emergency services in some states. At one point on Thursday, more than 74,000 customers were without service. Full service resumed around 3 p.m. ET.
“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,” AT&T said in a statement Thursday evening. “We are continuing our assessment of today’s outage to ensure we keep delivering the service that our customers deserve.”
The exact number of AT&T customers affected by the outage has not yet been determined. Downdetector, the online platform that originally detected the early morning outage, counted 1.7 million customers affected by the outage so far.
Customers from other carriers including Verizon and T-Mobile also reported outages, although not at the level seen with AT&T. Representatives from those companies said that reported outages may have been caused by their customers trying to reach AT&T customers.
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National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are looking into the outages. The FCC has been made aware of the outages and is looking into them.
“We are aware of the reported wireless outages, and our Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau is actively investigating,” the FCC posted on X. “We are in touch with AT&T and public safety authorities, including FirstNet, as well as other providers.”
