AT&T customers hit by widespread outages across the US as company scrambles to fix problem: Live updates

“CISA is aware of the reports and we are working closely with AT&T to understand the cause of the outage and its impacts, and stand ready to offer any assistance needed,” The agency’s Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity, Eric Goldstein, said in a statement.

“Some of you may not have cell phone service this morning,” Mr DeSantis said while speaking to a crowd about the work of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District on Thursday.

“You think about your daily life like…honestly it’s like imagine if we had an EMP attack or something like what would end up happening in this country,” he said. “It’s not necessarily a good thought.”

Emergency officials are struggling to take in calls as the AT&T outage persists. In Virginia, officials with Prince William County, just an hour southwest from Washington DC, are asking their residents to text emergency services if they need to.

According to the Prince William Times, other officials in neighbouring counties are putting out the same notices, but are alerting residents to text 911 when possible.

AT&T is saying that 75 per cent of its network has been restored.

“Our network teams took immediate action and so far three-quarters of our network has been restored,” the company said. “We are working as quickly as possible to restore service to remaining customers.”

AT&T is now pointing affected customers to a special page on its website. It’s not very detailed:

“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning. Our network teams took immediate action and so far three-quarters of our network has been restored. We are working as quickly as possible to restore service to remaining customers.”

Recent iPhones (the 14 and 15) include a new satellite connectivity feature that lets them connect to the world through satellites rather than traditional phone connections. It’s explained here.

You should be able to use that even if you are part of the AT&T outage. But note that it’s mostly intended for emergency situations – and that it comes with its own restrictions, such as requiring sight of the sky.

AT&T has recommended that affected users get onto WiFi and use that to call people. (Instructions are below.)

But there are plenty of other ways of communicating without a phone connection, too. You can

It’s also worth noting that there are plenty of ways to use services without an active internet connection, too. You can download maps offline, for instance (Google has long allowed this, and Apple Maps has recently introduced it, too). And you can download music and videos onto your phone ready for any long journeys.

It’s only a few months since the release of Leave The World Behind, Netflix’s film with a tag line that does feel a little familiar today:

Of course, there is internet, and most phones are still working. But it is a reminder that such an outage is possible.

Florida senator Marco Rubio has used the outage to stoke fear about a Chinese cyber attack. At the moment there is nothing to indicate whether the outage was intentional.

Probably not, says Ryan French, an astrophysicist.