A massive cellular outage that’s been disrupting phone service across the country has many AT&T customers looking to the sky for answers.
By Thursday morning, nearly 75,000 AT&T customers, as well as a few thousand Verizon and T-Mobile customers as well, had reported cellular outages, according to CNN.
“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning. We are working urgently to restore service to them. We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored,” AT&T said in a statement around 9:00 am Thursday morning.
By then, some parts of its network had begun to recover, AT&T said, but it didn’t have an ETA for when the network would be fully operational.
As of about 10:00 am Thursday morning, users of the social media platform X were still reporting outages:
@ATT cell service is on SOS mode. I heard it is a nationwide outage. Any updates on when it will be resolved?
— CaTroLa (@CaroCatrola) February 22, 2024
Yep—there is a large nationwide outage. I’m stuck with SOS mode and can’t do anything. Connected to school WiFi which is very limited in what I can do.
— Dawn Kasal Finley(she/her) (@kasal_finley) February 22, 2024
I have an iPhone and an Android. My iPhone is on SOS due to the outage, but my android is working! So even you have an iPhone I think you need an android. @ATT needs to fix this problem
— Coach Rachel G (@TheReal_RachelG) February 22, 2024
Apparently AT&T’s cellular network has suffered major outages. I seem to be part of that outage. I can’t make or receive calls, but I can receive and send texts to one person who isn’t in the network.
Technology is weird.
— Margaret mcgarry (@cocoburbank) February 22, 2024
.@ATT you need to fix your shit. You want to own everything you better make sure everything is working. CEO John Stankey are you going to credit our accounts for this outage with your 23M compensation? #outage
— SelectStart (@WizerdOfBlah) February 22, 2024
Speculation has begun to mount on social media that the outages may be the result of a solar flare.
“A strong solar flare occurred around midnight Thursday. Although it’s not clear what caused a nationwide cell phone service provider outage, strong solar flares/geomagnetic storms can impact radio communications and technology on Earth,” Emily Sutton of Oklahoma station KFOR reported.
Look:
A strong solar flare occurred around midnight Thursday. Although it’s not clear what caused a nationwide cell phone service provider outage, strong solar flares/geomagnetic storms can impact radio communications and technology on Earth.
7AM THU 2.22.24 pic.twitter.com/vJLiqMKeAC
— Emily Sutton (@emilyrsutton) February 22, 2024
But other reports say this isn’t what happened.
“With AT&T having been victim to a solar flare back in 1972 – can the same issue happen again? According to FOX 35 Meteorologist Brooks Garner, the important distinction here is that AT&T was made up of landlines. The solar flare back in the 70s created a voltage on the physical lines,” Orlando station WOFL reported.
“The issue Thursday morning seems to stem from a SIM card database registry issue, Brooks said,” according to the station.
“Now, it is possible the X class flare [that occurred Thursday] had impacts to the voltage on some electronics, but since this is so specific to AT&T and not other carriers, it’s likely not space weather related,” Brooks said in her own words.
That said, most people appear to have doubts about the solar flare theory — some for conspiratorial reasons even involving the southern border crisis.
Observe:
Solar flare. Total bs. Setting the narrative for future additional outages
— ERock (@ERocky66) February 22, 2024
Did any other country report outages? Solar flare it would be a hemisphere event.
— Nathan Alexander ✠ (@BlueRidgeRustic) February 22, 2024
AT&T has a major outage.
Blame a Solar Flare that occurred around Midnight CST in America.
I’m not buying it.
— Thomas (TJ) Brantley (@forgottenimage_) February 22, 2024
It wasn’t just a common outage. They’ve come out to say it was a solar flare, but that too is just a cover story. With 8 million+ illegals here, 20,000+ being Chinese, its safe to assume this is just the beginning
— RebelSage31 (@RebSage31) February 22, 2024
Meanwhile, the outage is also affecting vital services.
In a statement, the San Francisco Fire Department said they were affected as well and urged those in need to call them from a landline.
Look:
We are aware of an issue impacting AT&T wireless customers from making and receiving any phone calls (including to 911).
We are actively engaged and monitoring this.
The San Francisco 911 center is still operational.
If you are an AT&T customer and cannot get through to 911,… pic.twitter.com/TUIEBkqmkI
— SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT MEDIA (@SFFDPIO) February 22, 2024
In addition to all this, the drama has also inspired the sharing of many, many, many humorous memes about the situation.
Case in point:
iPhone users when they see their phone only on SOS only #outage pic.twitter.com/VWtj3V4QXU
— ً (@_Xins) February 22, 2024
When you are on call and suddenly it shows “SOS only”:
AT&T #outage Nationwide pic.twitter.com/GuayoATQtw
— RanaJi (@RanaTells) February 22, 2024
I better see a credit for this #outage @ATT pic.twitter.com/lRXJefhiLk
— Daniel (@chaoticounselor) February 22, 2024
Everyone when they wake up and their AT&T service is under sos only mode #outage pic.twitter.com/jZZKVvtChm
— TeMperZ (@Kick_TeMperZ) February 22, 2024
SOS Only … got US Cellular user feeling likepic.twitter.com/yaynqweLgO
— Stacks n Snacks ✭ (@All_Cake88) February 22, 2024
https://twitter.com/LA_SassyPants/status/1760695597349126145
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