T-Mobile issue sparks widespread outage reports across US [u]

By Mike Peterson

A problem with voice and data service on T-Mobile's network appears to be causing widespread outage reports across the U.S., including complaints from users on other networks.

Credit: T-Mobile

Service tracking site DownDetector noted a peak of 117,015 T-Mobile outage reports at 3:03 p.m. Eastern. Impacted users across social media reported being unable to make or receive calls. Some other users reported issues with data, although Wi-Fi calling appeared unaffected.

T-Mobile's technology president, Neville Ray, acknowledged the issue at 4:18 p.m. Eastern.

Interestingly, reports of widespread outages also appeared for Sprint, AT&T and Verizon, although the two former companies have said that their networks are working fine.

According to Protocol editor Mike Murphy, that appears to be because T-Mobile's issues were so widespread that callers on other networks thought their own services were experiencing issues.

Update:

Services were restored later in the day, but FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in a tweet vowed to probe the wide outage, calling it "unacceptable."

"The T-Mobile network outage is unacceptable. The @FCC is launching an investigation. We're demanding answers - and so are American consumers," Pai said on Twitter.