AT&T Customers Couldn’t Call Their Momma? Here’s What Happened
AT&T experienced a massive outage on Thursday (Feb. 22) that left many customers unable to phone home.
On Thursday morning, at approximately 3 a.m. EST, customers began experiencing difficulties and technical issues with their phones. AT&T released a statement addressing the issues at the time. They asserted that, while some wireless services were down, “three-quarters of their network had been restored.” However, swarms of online customers congested social media with complaints.
Customers alleged they couldn’t text their loved ones, while others experienced consistently dropped calls. Naturally, people began to theorize what could’ve led to the 10-hour disruption. At the same time, some folks clocked into their part-time jobs as X/Twitter comedians to comprehend the situation.
“So Thanks To AT&T I’m Single Now.. Apparently I Was At ‘That Other Bi**h House,’ someone typed. “Twitter ‘experts’: ‘This is clearly a coordinated attack against our infrastructure by Chinese hackers. We are vulnerable and the collapse is literally seconds away. PREPARE NOW.’ Reality: *Some 25 year old IBM console in an AT&T data center randomly sh*ts the bed,” another account quipped. “AT&T outage was said to be due to a human config error while expanding their network, instead of a cyber threat,” an X account deduced.
Phone services were disrupted for so long, that TikTokers created whole skits depicting the situation. Drestoopid jumped into the fray with a video depicting the crazy event. “POV: you work at AT&T and everyone is mad about the outage,” the video reads.
Mobs of angry AT&T customers also paid a visit to their local stores in real life. Some of these disgruntled customers assumed that AT&T employees were the catalyst for the disruption. In a viral image, an employee could be seen getting hounded by customers. “They done walked AT&T down,” the caption read. “Buddy just work there.” The unnamed employee is seen visibly stressed out as customers seemingly want answers on why they can’t call their mommas. Understandable.
White House spokesperson John Kirby stated that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were looking into the incident, Reuters reported. But Kirby reassured that the incident wasn’t “crippling” to US infrastructure. “There was some impact to Commerce (Department), but I don’t know the extent of that; I don’t think it was crippling.”
Finally, AT&T returned with two more statements regarding the disrupted service at 2:10 p.m. EST and then 6:46 p.m. EST. “We have restored wireless service to all our affected customers,” the company typed. “We sincerely apologize to them. Keeping our customers connected remains our top priority, and we are taking steps to ensure our customers do not experience this again in the future.”
“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,” they added. “We are continuing our assessment of today’s outage to ensure we keep delivering the service that our customers deserve.”
According to DownDetector, areas impacted the most by the outages in America were big cities. These cities included Dallas, New York City, Houston, San Antonio, Atlanta, Miami, Austin, Charlotte, and Chicago.
But services are back now, so call your momma.
