Thousands of Americans are without cellular service after a nationwide network outage occurred at 4:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time this morning. AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile networks were affected by the outage.
AT&T announced on X, “Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions. We are working urgently to restore service to all who are impacted. For the latest, visit: http://go.att.com/networkupdate.”
The outage has impacted emergency services across the country, with Montgomery County Department of Police in Maryland stating on X, “There are reports of cascading cellular service outages with AT&T, Consumer Cellular, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and Verizon. The outage has also affected FirstNet. If you need to contact 9-1-1 for emergency services, please use a landline. Text to 9-1-1 is not impacted.”
Some believe the outage is due to two solar flares last night. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory reported two strong flares, stating, “The Sun emitted two strong solar flares, the first one peaking at 6:07 p.m. EST on Feb. 21, 2024, and the second peaking at 1:32 a.m. EST on Feb. 22, 2024.”
