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

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

#291

Post by Scoundreller »

standardUser wrote: post #286
jader201 wrote: post #276

Something I'm not seeing discussion on: What is/were the cascading effects of this, particularly for drivers? Many people in buildings were unaffected, as they could fallback to wifi. But I imagine this had a pretty broad impact to drivers. Just a few things I can think of: - Packages delayed (UPS, FedEx, Amazon, truck drivers, etc.) for drivers that relied on their phone's mapping apps to get them to their deliverie…

Worth noting that GPS does not rely on cell service.

The routing does though.

I have Google offline maps downloaded for areas I end up in just in this case. Gotta do traffic rerouting the old fashioned way though.

Or have an old-school GPS map thingy in your glovebox.

(Also have kiwix and a whole archive of Wikipedia on my phone).

I wonder if meshtastic communicators sales took off during this. How’s LoRa traffic these days?

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

#292

Post by bregma »

BuyMyBitcoins wrote: post #243
flippy_flops wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The speculation is fascinating. For most people, their guess is a reflection of themselves. Is there a term for that? This is a gross generalization, but I've seen... - Science people guessing solar flares - My "right-wing friend" guessed international hackers - I, myself, guessed it was a botched software release - Someone in this post commented their military friend says get gas And yet, like everyone else, I genui…

My speculation is: “Higher-ups kept demanding that technicians ‘do more with less’ in order to deliver on quarterly metrics and now we’re finally seeing the cumulative result of employees being stretched thin, underpaid, and overworked.” You are welcome to infer as to why I’m thinking this way!

So how is the job search going?

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

#293

Post by overstay8930 »

relbeek2 wrote: post #255
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.

> However, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is “working closely with AT&T to understand the cause of the outage and its impacts, and stand[s] ready to offer any assistance needed,” Eric Goldstein, the agency’s executive assistant director for cybersecurity, said in a statement to CNN.[1] [1] - [ https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/22/tech/att-cell-service-outage/... This isn't telling of anything, righ…

This is normal for high profile outages, even if you are small you can still engage with the CISA if you think there's foul play.

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

#294

Post by LeifCarrotson »

standardUser wrote: post #286
jader201 wrote: post #276

Something I'm not seeing discussion on: What is/were the cascading effects of this, particularly for drivers? Many people in buildings were unaffected, as they could fallback to wifi. But I imagine this had a pretty broad impact to drivers. Just a few things I can think of: - Packages delayed (UPS, FedEx, Amazon, truck drivers, etc.) for drivers that relied on their phone's mapping apps to get them to their deliverie…

Worth noting that GPS does not rely on cell service.

Google Maps and now Apple Maps (as of ~6 months ago) have offline maps, but not by default. If you enable and download them for your area of interest you can use a subset of the normal app.

I make sure to have this around my usual area and anytime I travel to an area with poor coverage, plus my Garmin watch has offline maps and GPS everywhere, but this is not typical.

OSMand usage is even less common.

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

#295

Post by TheAdamist »

ryathal wrote: post #56
bombcar wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Status pages are basically useless if they’re public facing. Either they automatically update based on automatic tests (like some of the Internet backbone health tests) or they’re manually updated. If they’re automatic, they’re almost always internal and not public. If they’re manual, they’re almost always delayed and not updated until after the outage is posted to HN anyway.

The other problem with status pages is depending on what happened it may not be possible to update the status page anyway. You really need a third party to have a useful status page.

Which is pretty much what down detector has evolved into. And it looks like they have an enterprise offering to alert companies to their own issues.

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

#296

Post by bdcravens »

inemesitaffia wrote: post #201
bdcravens wrote: post #150

My wife and I are same account (AT&T, Texas) and hers is down but mine isn't. Only difference is my phone is slightly newer (15 Pro Max vs 14 Pro)

Did I see you on Reddit? As in both are down now?

No that wasn't me.

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

#297

Post by panarky »

jader201 wrote: post #276

Something I'm not seeing discussion on: What is/were the cascading effects of this, particularly for drivers? Many people in buildings were unaffected, as they could fallback to wifi. But I imagine this had a pretty broad impact to drivers. Just a few things I can think of: - Packages delayed (UPS, FedEx, Amazon, truck drivers, etc.) for drivers that relied on their phone's mapping apps to get them to their deliverie…

Also can't login to sites that require SMS 2FA.

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

#298

Post by tnel77 »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #294
standardUser wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worth noting that GPS does not rely on cell service.

Google Maps and now Apple Maps (as of ~6 months ago) have offline maps, but not by default. If you enable and download them for your area of interest you can use a subset of the normal app. I make sure to have this around my usual area and anytime I travel to an area with poor coverage, plus my Garmin watch has offline maps and GPS everywhere, but this is not typical. OSMand usage is even less common.

Offline maps are a life saver in areas with bad coverage. One of the first things I setup for a new phone or when I’m headed somewhere new on vacation.

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

#299

Post by freedomben »

Scoundreller wrote: post #291
standardUser wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worth noting that GPS does not rely on cell service.

The routing does though. I have Google offline maps downloaded for areas I end up in just in this case. Gotta do traffic rerouting the old fashioned way though. Or have an old-school GPS map thingy in your glovebox. (Also have kiwix and a whole archive of Wikipedia on my phone). I wonder if meshtastic communicators sales took off during this. How’s LoRa traffic these days?

Yes, much that we think of as Google Maps relies on API calls made to the backend. Plus this assumes that you downloaded the offline maps ahead of time, which in my anecdotal experience is not something that most people really consider. GMaps does (or did at one time at least) have a neat feature of auto-downloading your home area map but, the one time I needed it, it didn't work.

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

#300

Post by maxerickson »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #294
standardUser wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Worth noting that GPS does not rely on cell service.

Google Maps and now Apple Maps (as of ~6 months ago) have offline maps, but not by default. If you enable and download them for your area of interest you can use a subset of the normal app. I make sure to have this around my usual area and anytime I travel to an area with poor coverage, plus my Garmin watch has offline maps and GPS everywhere, but this is not typical. OSMand usage is even less common.

Lots of people dislike the design choices in OSMAnd, so it's worth mentioning that there are lots of apps that use OSM data and provide offline maps and routing.
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