AT&T Inc. said Thursday that its cellular network has been restored, after widespread “wireless service outages” hit some of its customers earlier in the day following reports of outages from users.
Tens of thousands of AT&T T,
users had reported service outages on Downdetector shortly after 11 a.m. Eastern time. AT&T said it took “immediate action” to address the issues.
“We have restored wireless service for all of our affected customers,” AT&T said on its website Thursday afternoon. “We sincerely apologize to them… we are taking steps to ensure this does not happen to our customers again in the future.”
AT&T attributed the outage to a software error, rather than anything malicious. “Based on our initial analysis, we believe today’s outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used while we were expanding our network, and not by a cyber attack,” the company said in a note.
Previously, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI were looking into the outage and the possibility of a cyberattack.
See also: UnitedHealth notes that a suspected nation-state cyberattack has affected its Change Health unit
AT&T shares fell more than 2% on Thursday.
While customers of Verizon Communications Inc. VZ,
and T-Mobile US Inc. TMUS,
also reported service issues on Downdetector, those operators suggested that their customers’ reports were due to problems contacting customers on the AT&T network.
“Verizon’s network is operating normally,” a spokesperson said. “Some customers experienced issues this morning when calling or texting customers served by another carrier.”
T-Mobile “did not experience an outage,” a spokesperson said. “Our network is functioning normally.”
Verizon shares fell about 1% in Thursday action, while T-Mobile shares fell slightly.
Mike Murphy contributed to this report.