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Outages are affecting all four major U.S. carriers

By Alan Friedman

Updated: Aug 21, 2019, 8:57 PM

Outages are affecting all four major U.S. carriers

All four major U.S. carriers are experiencing issues this afternoon. According to DownDetector.com, T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint and AT&T customers are reporting problems. The number of complaints from T-Mobile subscribers rose from 47 to 5,731 in minutes. 59% reported a problem with their phone, 33% were unable to access the mobile internet and 7% said that they could not connect to the carrier's network. The issues started at 5:22 pm EDT and are affecting subscribers in Houston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, Brooklyn, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Denver, and Seattle. A T-Mobile spokesman says that it has "engaged our engineers and are working on a resolution."

UPDATE: We have received a statement from T-Mobile CEO John Legere: "Some customers are experiencing intermittent call issues on our network. Thanks for your patience... (T-Mobile Chief Technical Officer) NevilleRay and team are working to resolve the problem ASAP and have already started to see signs of recovery."

UPDATE 2:Looks like things are returning to normal as the number of complaints from subscribers has dropped off sharply. T-Mobile's CTO Neville Ray says, "Update: Call issues are resolved and service is back to normal. We apologize to those impacted by the disruption."

Since 6:14 PM EDT, Verizon customers have been having problems. 45% said that they have no internet connectivity, while 37% cannot use their phone. Verizon's outage has led to complaints from Washington, Fort Smith, Brooklyn, New York City, Philadelphia, Dallas, Jonesboro, Denver, El Paso, and Columbia. Since 5:50 pm EDT, Sprint customers in Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Washington, Philadelphia, Orlando, Los Angeles, Dallas, Charlotte, and Kansas City have been dealing with outages. 57% complained about their phone, 37% can't use the mobile internet and 5% had a total blackout.

Outages are affecting all four major U.S. carriers

AT&T subscribers in Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Corpus Christi, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Charlotte, Victoria, Wood Dale, and Owensboro reported problems with the wireless operator's network. The outage started at 6:40 pm EDT and 66% of the complaints were about the mobile internet being down; 20% could not make a phone call and 12% can't connect to the AT&T network.

T-Mobile says its engineers are working to resolve the issue

Also affected by outages this evening are pre-paid carrier Metro by T-Mobile, which is not surprising since it uses T-Mobile's network. And Instagram users have also had problems today accessing their newsfeed and stories. Some can not log-in to the app.

This is a developing story, so keep checking in for updates. If you can.

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Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.

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