SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Customers across several major cellular companies in the United States were reporting service issues nationwide. It was not immediately clear what the cause was.
On DownDetector.com -- a website where people can self-report service disruptions -- reports of Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T and U.S. Cellular outages began to increase starting around 12:15 p.m. PT. Multiple reports indicate that the reports are impacting cities all across the country.
In the Sacramento region, public safety agencies offered advice on what to do someone needs to call 9-1-1 for help or report an emergency.
The Stanislaus County Office of Emergency Services says, "You can still call and text 9-1-1 but there are intermittent issues and you may not get through. Use a landline if possible until this issue is resolved."
The Plumas County Sheriff says Verizon service is working but, "We’ve heard if you power your device down and back on again, the problem may correct itself."
The San Joaquin County District Attorney says to use a landline, if possible.
The Tracy Police Department recommends turning on wi-fi calling on your phone.
The El Dorado County Sheriff's Office says to "use your cellular phone and text a message to '911'. EDSO dispatch will receive the message and respond to you accordingly."
The Turlock Police Department says not to call or text 911 just to test it. Despite the outage, TPD says 911 is still operational.
What the companies are saying
In a statement, Verizon confirmed that there had been a recent uptick of customers reporting service disruptions. According to DownDetector, there had been more than 24,000 reports of service outages by around 4:30 p.m. ET.
"We are aware of an issue impacting voice calls for some Verizon customers," said a communications manager from Verizon. "Our engineers are engaged and we are working quickly to identify and solve the issue."
In a statement, T-Mobile said they confirmed customers were able to place calls, though some calls to Verizon numbers may not go through.
AT&T said that they are monitoring the situation
It was not immediately clear if the outages reported across multiple providers were cases of people not being able to call or receive calls from customers of a specific provider, or if there a larger issue affecting all of them.
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