US users travelling overseas are sporadically unable to use the internet or even make calls on their iPhones, due to what appears to be a massive, global outage for the major carriers.
An AT&T logo on a building
In February 2024, AT&T had an outage in the US -- and later paid a miserly $5 compensation to users. Now there's an outage for the rest of the world, and it's affecting users on T-Mobile and Verizon as well as AT&T.
Every American traveling in Europe right now with #Verizon is waking up unable to order an Uber, check banking, log in to their bank, use Google Maps, call a friend or hotel -- ANYTHING -- massive global roaming outage. Dangerous. Zero comms from Verizon. HELP @StateDept @cnnbrk
-- Nick Ponton (@nickponton) June 27, 2024
It's not clear what variables there are in who is affected and how profoundly -- but it is widespread. According to reports on Twitter, some users are getting occasional access, but it's sporadic and incomplete.
While none of the three carriers have made any announcement, some users were able to contact support teams. They appear to all have been told that the outage will be resolved within 24 hours.
Hey @VerizonSupport @Verizon - I'm in Europe and I've been without cell service for about 20 hours. Any estimates on how long it's going to take to fix this outage? Your team told us it would be fixed within a few hours last night and it's now been about 14 hours since then.
-- Sarah McCammon (@sarahmccammon) June 27, 2024
The fact that it is affecting three carriers instead of just one, suggests that it's a common hardware problem. However, there don't appear to be reports of outages affecting local carriers outside the US.