AT&T apologizes for massive system failure but rules out cyber attack

Recent iPhones (the 14 and 15) include a new satellite connectivity feature that lets them connect to the world through satellites rather than traditional phone connections. It’s explained here.

You should be able to use that even if you are part of the AT&T outage. But note that it’s mostly intended for emergency situations – and that it comes with its own restrictions, such as requiring sight of the sky.

This was a fairly representative message from emergency services across the US. They said they were aware of the problem and advised people to try to use different phones – and not to call 911 just to check whether it works.

Many of AT&T’s customers are calling on the company to offer some credit in return for the outage. (The network has apologised, but not yet said anything about whether there will be any kind of compensation.)

In a statement updating customers later on Thursday, AT&T ruled out that the outage was caused by a cyber attack.

“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 provider said.

“We are continuing our assessment of today’s outage to ensure we keep delivering the service that our customers deserve.”

AT&T has advised affected customers to use WiFi calling. As the name suggests, that relies on WiFi and the internet to make calls, rather than the phone network. As such, it gets around the problems with the phone network (but does of course rely on you having access to a WiFi connection).

It’s turned on by opening up the Settings app on your iPhone or Android. Press “Cellular” on an iPhone or “Connection” on an Android, and then choose the WiFi calling option, which will allow you to turn it on and choose important settings.

You can find more information on AT&T’s website here.

Amid the phone service outage, one person named Leo took to TikTok to show what effect the outage had on people who were at the airport.

Brittany Miller has the full story here:

On tracking website Down Detector, as well as in complaints on Twitter, customers at rival networks such as Verizon and T-Mobile also complained about an outage.

But it appears that is just an effect of the AT&T outage, and is happening because people on that network are unable to call others. Both Verizon and T-Mobile have denied that they are having issues.

AT&T has apologised for the widespread outages that affected tens of thousands of consumers, but said that the network failure was not due to a cyber attack.

Read the full story here:

Probably not, says Ryan French, an astrophysicist.

“Some of you may not have cell phone service this morning,” Mr DeSantis said while speaking to a crowd about the work of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District on Thursday.

“You think about your daily life like...honestly it’s like imagine if we had an EMP attack or something like what would end up happening in this country,” he said. “It’s not necessarily a good thought.”