Nationwide AT&T outage left thousands in Virginia without cell service
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Photo: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/Getty Images
Residents across Virginia lost cell service Thursday as AT&T and other providers encountered massive nationwide network outages.
Why it matters: The outages, which weren't resolved until mid-afternoon, carried safety implications as some customers potentially found themselves unable to contact emergency services, reports Axios' Ivana Saric.
- It also impacted work days and communication among families since people couldn't place calls or send texts.
State of play: For about 15 minutes Thursday morning, Arlington stopped receiving 911 calls from AT&T users, per the Washington Post.
- Other Virginia localities took to X to warn residents that they might not be able to reach 911, either.
- These included Prince William and Virginia Beach, which earlier this week said T-Mobile customers were having issues reaching 911 due to an outage.
Zoom in: T-Mobile and Verizon customers also reported lost cell service, but AT&T's network suffered the most widespread outages.
- In Richmond, there were nearly 1,200 self-reported AT&T outages from 4am to 4pm — peaking at 177 at 9:49am, according to the tracking site Downdetector.
- One reader in the Museum District with AT&T told Axios he didn't get service back until noon.
- Another AT&T user in Oregon Hill had the "SOS" signal from 4am to around 1:15pm.
- A resident in the West End told Axios his work phone, also AT&T, had been down all of Thursday morning but fixed itself by 2pm.
Sabrina's thought bubble: I maybe watch too many movies, but this sounds eerily similar to "Leave the World Behind" on Netflix, which is about an apocalypse that starts with cell signals going down.
- I'm sure we're fine though.