On the morning of February 22nd, many individuals were surprised to discover that their cell phones were not functioning properly, highlighting our reliance on these devices in our daily lives. AT&T reported that the outage was likely the result of errors made during network expansion rather than a cyberattack.
The disruption began around 3:30 am ET and impacted more than 73,000 customers at its peak. While Verizon and T-Mobile users were also affected, the impact was less severe compared to AT&T customers. Public safety officials recommended refraining from testing phone connectivity by calling 911 and instead advised reaching out to friends or family. Additionally, they suggested utilizing landlines for emergency calls, though the prevalence of landlines has decreased significantly in recent years. This incident prompts a reevaluation of the importance of maintaining landline connections for emergencies going forward.