T-Mobile suffers major network outage across US
On Monday night, thousands of users of the T-Mobile network suffered connectivity problems. These included not being able to make phone calls and other basic functions such as SMS messaging. This was a nationwide outage, with reports from varied locations such as California and New York.
The outage-oriented website DownDetector alone had more than 80,000 registered cases. Most worryingly, many iPhone 14 users reported not even the emergency SOS satellite was available, and all they got was no connection in their signal status. Suffice it to say, there was little users could do to solve the problem.
Later in the evening, T-Mobile had made progress in getting connectivity back but customers wouldn’t let the company get away with it so easily. There were many complaints on social media, which the company later addressed, apologizing for the situation. By midnight, the DownDetector numbers fell to around 9,000 cases.
According to T-Mobile’s Neville Ray, it happened due to a 3rd party fiber interruption, which impacted many services across a wide area.
This outage came during a time when a lot of people are on edge given the recent events with the alleged Chinese spy balloon and the other unidentified objects. All of them raised doubts about whether these devices could influence satellite communications.
T-Mobile might give away freebies and coupons, but in these times, connectivity is a top priority given the sensibility of the issue. Bizarrely enough, the outage came the same day Neville announced he was retiring from the company. Foul play? Nobody knows, but he was in charge of PR during the evening, communicating info via his Twitter account.
Users had tried to solve the issue by themselves, with some claiming that toggling airplane mode on and off worked. There are also setting options that let you toggle mobile data and change the preferred network mode. They’re also worth a try, but you need to be more tech-savvy to know what you’re doing.
Not only T-Mobile had issues on Monday night. There were thousands of reports of other wireless carriers such as Verizon and AT&T. Numbers for these providers were significantly less, however, with 2,000 and 1,2000 unresolved incidents, respectively.
When connectivity is down, it feels like the end of the world for many. There’s justification for this, as many people rely heavily on mobile connectivity for work or staying in touch with loved ones. However, uncertainty is the biggest factor at play. You don’t know how long the mobile network will be out. This is why it’s a sensible idea to find alternatives for basic communication when situations like these happen.
A good idea is to keep a landline and a radio. There are special devices too, that allows you to remain communicated without satellite or mobile data.
Fortunately, the issue is mostly solved by now, and hopefully, no CEOs from other companies will resign today.
So we have T-Mobile. I noticed just before turning in last night that my phone had lost connection to the Internet. All I can say is big deal. Shi& happens sometimes. We all simply go about 99% of the time used to something working for us and God forbid that there is an outage. Then everyone starts whining. Human nature I suppose. It is easier to be negative and complain than to be positive. The wife and I have been happy T-Mo customers for over 5 and a half years now.