Anyone Experience the AT&T Outage?
Reports this morning are that AT&T suffered a massive connectivity outage through the U.S. northeast and midwest. I noticed my iPhone wasn’t getting a signal at one point this morning, but I was at home and on wifi so it didn’t affect my routine. Still, other people suffered and this has been a recurring incident. This tweet from BestFoodBlogEVR reminds us we can encourage AT&T to not let it happen again.
It took the AT&T rep 25 minutes to finally tell me that there’s an area-wide EDGE/3G outage. At least I got a $25 credit (you have to ask).
A $25 credit x however many customers they have in the northeast and midwest sounds like strong encouragement to me.
About the Author: A pioneer in the field of ink blogging, Sumocat works diligently to promote digital ink and Tablet PCs, earning him a Microsoft MVP award for Tablet PCs in 2008. He also champions the cause of mobile computing in general, dabbing in various forms of mobile blogging as part of an ever-evolving experiment in the field.
Warner Crocker | Jul 29, 2009 | Reply
Yep. Had difficulties here as well. Remember you have to call and ASK for the credit.
Xavier Lanier | Jul 29, 2009 | Reply
Any idea how long you guys were without service? My wife is in NYC today…wonder if this is why I haven’t heard from her ;-)
Sumocat | Jul 29, 2009 | Reply
Noticed no signal sometime before 7, maybe 6:30-ish. Was fine at 8 after I got to work.
Tim | Jul 29, 2009 | Reply
AT&T outage… my service has been lousy since the 3GS rollout. After working with AT&T over two-three weeks, I finally paid for a skype out line and cut down my AT&T plan.
Skype on mac is pretty nifty after you realize you need to go into preferences and set your default country code and if the phone numbers in your address book have an area code:
1) Open apple’s address book
2) find a contact
3) right click on the number and choose Dial With Skype.
Now if someone would create a skype controlling dash board widget/address book, I’d be golden…
Jim Russell | Jul 29, 2009 | Reply
My AT&T 3g data access died about 3:30 am and remained down till about 7. I called AT&T customer service (and found the long wait time encouraging, suggesting lots of others were unable to get service) but the rep claimed to be unaware of any outage. After checking she admitted that NVA and DC were off. Where were you guys to tell me about a rebate. If I got one everytime 3G service dropped here (3-6 times a day) they would have to send me thousands every month!
Steve | Jul 29, 2009 | Reply
…..At&ts network keeps going down….what good is having a cell phone if u cant use it? I have to be honest i was thinking about getting the iphone, but At&t drives me nuts…this is like the 3rd time this happened in a month. unacceptable. At&t needs to do better than this if they want my service
AJ | Jul 29, 2009 | Reply
AT&T has been having statewide outages in Hawaii as well. 2 or 3 major network failures within the past year. Completely unacceptable!
neuro | Jul 29, 2009 | Reply
Unbelievable – how lousy ATT’s service and coverage is. I guess its a sign of the pervasive stupidity of people that they would still flock to ATT for the iPhone, overpay on the Monthly Recurring Charge and put up with this.
Go to Sprint or Verizon. Great service, voice quality, data speeds and reliability.
And Sprint is a LOT cheaper.
S7 | Jul 29, 2009 | Reply
Some AT&T rep just told me that they don’t have permission to issue credits for service outages. WTF!
J. Edgar Hoover | Jul 29, 2009 | Reply
And sprint is a lot cheaper? Aren’t they still bankrupt? Or did the Pre save them from total annihilation? You would think since At&t had previous telecommunication experience before the widespread use of cell phones, they would have a bigger and more powerful base of service. But I guess not. :P
Josh | Jul 29, 2009 | Reply
Sprint may be cheaper, but hey lost 257,000 customers in just this quarter. They will be the cheapest around if they go out of business. No service charges at all!
Shut It | Jul 29, 2009 | Reply
You people are rediculous. You think that Verizon or Sprint or TMO never have network problems? Things crop up that are unexpected. What if you were waiting my table at the restaurant at which you work and you had to go to the bathroom while you were taking my order….should I ask you to pay me money out of your pocket when you get back because I was inconvenienced….please. Everyone has this “I’m owed something” attidude. Get over yourselves.
Adam | Jul 29, 2009 | Reply
I was up early this morning for a flight from Boston to DC. On my way to the airport around 4:30 AM I noticed my iPhone had full bars but no data connectivity over 3G or EDGE. After arriving in DC around 7:30 AM, the problem persisted, and the coworker I met up with there was experiencing the same problem with his iPhone. In the car on our way to our destination, both of our phones buzzed with new email alerts at 8:00 AM on the dot, indicating data had been restored.
Dean | Jul 30, 2009 | Reply
Funny, here in Michigan, I had cell phone service all day yesterday with AT&T. But my internet phone service (Wide Open West) was out for several hours – it was some problem with regional phone service in Michigan, Illinois and Indiana. I did have internet connectivity though. I wonder if WOW’s problems were related to AT&T’s?
Chris | Aug 1, 2009 | Reply
The problem is not with AT&T bit the amount of data people are using. AT&T nor any other network anticipated how much data the iPhone specifically sucks down. Had the iPhone been on Verizon or t-mobile or sprint there network would crash a lot too.
Butch | Aug 4, 2009 | Reply
Asheville, NC
No service at all last night and only intermittent service this morning(dropped calls, no service, one way links). Looks like the 3G system for AT & T isn’t ready for prime time yet.
slfashe | Aug 9, 2009 | Reply
I am having consistent problems with my AT&T service. I have no signal frequently now at my house in West Asheville. I live 1/4 mile from the AT&T store. Plus, calls at my office downtown often don’t ring. They keep going straight to voice mail. It’s getting really old.
Andrew | Aug 11, 2009 | Reply
Seems like something went down with AT@T in flint michigan today at least 5 people in the area I know of can’t use the service
Dave | Aug 12, 2009 | Reply
I’m having prolems on the FL panhandle…ever since yesterday at around 6pm my iPhone is useless unless I turn 3g off! I still have full bars and a 3g symbol when it’s on, but it auto disconnects calls and will not allow any data transfer. Edge is working fine.???? CD says no outage….I don’t believe them.