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Cellular outage in U.S. hits AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users

cnbc.com

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Re: Cellular outage in U.S. hits AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users

#81

Post by dylan604 »

alephnerd wrote: post #66
softwaredoug wrote: post #55

I'm just curious how we as a society manage the uptime of such a critical service? Do we have laws or enforcement in place to regulate / enforce how well basic cellular service (at least the emergency tier) must work in the US? Just imagining the dropped emergency calls today, etc? (Genuine question)

Landlines still work, and it's not too expensive to keep it as a redundancy.

how does a landline become relevant when one is not at home? right up to the start of work from home, I was spending very little time at home. a landline made no sense at that point.

Re: Cellular outage in U.S. hits AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users

#82

Post by flerchin »

joshstrange wrote: post #65

Seeing "SOS" only on iPhone currently. I got worried something had gone wrong with auto-bill pay since I only noticed after I was driving. It's interesting how naked I feel without access to the internet. I reach for it way more often than I would have ever guessed, something you only notice when it's not there. Last March my area saw large wind storms that knocked out power for almost a week (I'm not in a rural area…

Yes I've felt the same way. I feel like we have an instinctual need for social connection that we've filled with internet. Luckily, we do still have meat-space friends and family.

Re: Cellular outage in U.S. hits AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users

#83

Post by bombcar »

softwaredoug wrote: post #55

I'm just curious how we as a society manage the uptime of such a critical service? Do we have laws or enforcement in place to regulate / enforce how well basic cellular service (at least the emergency tier) must work in the US? Just imagining the dropped emergency calls today, etc? (Genuine question)

911 support is required of companies, it's monitored and fixed when not working.

But in this case, it's redundancy from the various providers - all providers must let you make a 911 call, no matter your phone or contract or provider.

So if AT&T's towers go down, your phone can still make 911 calls via Verizon or whomever else has a tower in your area, anything that can hear your phone will respond to a 911 call request.

Re: Cellular outage in U.S. hits AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users

#84

Post by joshstrange »

no_wizard wrote: post #78
joshstrange wrote: post #65

Seeing "SOS" only on iPhone currently. I got worried something had gone wrong with auto-bill pay since I only noticed after I was driving. It's interesting how naked I feel without access to the internet. I reach for it way more often than I would have ever guessed, something you only notice when it's not there. Last March my area saw large wind storms that knocked out power for almost a week (I'm not in a rural area…

Portland, is that you? This happened to us with the recent storms a month or two back, some places didn't have power restored for 2 weeks+

Lexington, KY. Not a massive city but the second largest in KY. I left after 2 days of no power and it didn't come back on for another 3-5 days more after that depending on where you lived.

Re: Cellular outage in U.S. hits AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users

#85

Post by unforeseen9991 »

midwestfounder wrote: post #52

I wonder if this is a cyber incident. Curious if any telecom folks know what the most likely explanation for an event like this would be, and what telltale signs/symptoms might first indicate this was caused by something nefarious.

Due to the gross incompetence these companies operate at, it's too hard to tell the difference.

Re: Cellular outage in U.S. hits AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users

#86

Post by SkyPuncher »

oceliker wrote: post #6

This is so odd. I have two phones with AT&T currently sitting right next to each other. One has service, the other is in SOS mode.

My wife and I were riding in the car next to each other. Took mine about 5 to 10 minutes longer to jump to SOS mode.

Re: Cellular outage in U.S. hits AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users

#87

Post by spking »

alephnerd wrote: post #66
softwaredoug wrote: post #55

I'm just curious how we as a society manage the uptime of such a critical service? Do we have laws or enforcement in place to regulate / enforce how well basic cellular service (at least the emergency tier) must work in the US? Just imagining the dropped emergency calls today, etc? (Genuine question)

Landlines still work, and it's not too expensive to keep it as a redundancy.

They are getting more expensive and less reliable:

https://www.ooma.com/blog/home-phone/landline-home-phone-is-...

Re: Cellular outage in U.S. hits AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users

#89

Post by colanderman »

bombcar wrote: post #76
joshstrange wrote: post #65

Seeing "SOS" only on iPhone currently. I got worried something had gone wrong with auto-bill pay since I only noticed after I was driving. It's interesting how naked I feel without access to the internet. I reach for it way more often than I would have ever guessed, something you only notice when it's not there. Last March my area saw large wind storms that knocked out power for almost a week (I'm not in a rural area…

My earliest computers were amazingly capable and powerful devices, I could do anything I could think of and spend hours and hours on them. Now my computer is insanely more powerful but without an Internet connection it feels dead and useless.

Optimize some low-level numeric algorithms, CPU or GPU, it brings back that feeling.

Re: Cellular outage in U.S. hits AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon users

#90

Post by bombcar »

rixthefox wrote: post #79
bombcar wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it still show bars in SOS mode? Or is SOS just “I dunno can’t see no cell towers but maybe it’d work?” I wonder if the MVNOs that piggyback on AT&T are showing down also. If not, it’s some AT&T service authorization system that exploded.

On the latest iPhones, SOS mode is the emergency fallback to satellite service. It's really meant to be used in situations where you're well outside of any sort of service area but you have a clear, unobstructed view of the sky. Your iPhone will instruct you on where to point and help you track an emergency satellite that is manned by live humans who will take your emergency request and relay it to the proper people.…

Won't that only activate if it can't see or communicate with any towers at all?
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