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

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

#331

Post by Animats » Thu, Feb 22, 2024, 8:02 PM UTC

This is a serious architectural flaw.

In the entire history of electromechanical switching in the Bell System, no central office was ever out of service for more than 30 minutes for any reason other than a natural disaster, or, on one single occasion, a major fire in NYC.

The AT&T Long Lines system in the 1960s and 1970s had ten regional centers, all independent and heavily interconnected. There was a control center, in Bedminster, NJ, but it just monitored and sent out routing updates every 15 minutes or so. All switches could revert to default routing if needed, which meant that some calls would not get through under heavy load. Most calls would still work.

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

#332

Post by tnel77 » Thu, Feb 22, 2024, 8:02 PM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #303

tnel77 wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This is one of the most interesting differences I often notice between users who rarely leave the city and those who routinely leave. Offline functionality often seems unnecessary at best and absurd at worst to the former group, while the more rural/remote the person the more they value offline functionality. For the most extreme example, talk to the average person who lives outside of Anchorage or Fairbanks in Alask…

I grew up in a rural area and lived in Colorado for a while. Going home or venturing into the mountains often resulted in bad service so it just became second nature. Good observation!

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

#333

Post by Animats » Thu, Feb 22, 2024, 8:06 PM UTC

There's an outage map.[1] But it's useless. That's just a US map of where most people live.

[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/outage-map-att-where-cell-phone...

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

#334

Post by harambae » Thu, Feb 22, 2024, 8:09 PM UTC

jeffwask wrote: post #153

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.

There are some reports that phones with e-sims are less likely to be impacted versus phones with hardware sims.

I have eSIM only (iPhone 15) and was impacted the same as physical SIM users on AT&T (Boston area).

I suppose I can't speak to likelihood with a sample size of one.

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

#335

Post by chasd00 » Thu, Feb 22, 2024, 8:11 PM UTC

my wife's phone wasn't working for half the day but mine was. Same provider and same location (i'm assuming being in the same house meant we probably were connecting to the same tower). Browsing around new sites, i think even solar flares are in the realm of possibility.

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

#336

Post by jhickok » Thu, Feb 22, 2024, 8:15 PM UTC

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…

I started driving across the US at 3am, didn't notice for the first few minutes until I tried pulling up the address in Apple Maps. Sure was strange following interstate signs for ~10 hours!

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

#337

Post by chasd00 » Thu, Feb 22, 2024, 8:15 PM UTC

Kon-Peki wrote: post #258

partiallypro wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I read just a bit ago, basically there is a problem with the database of SIM numbers. So, SIMs all just dislodged from the network because they lost their network authorization. That would lead one to believe it was a botched software push. I imagine online accounts get this information somehow which could explain the portal being broken. I have a prepaid hotspot and it works fine, but none of the "family p…

In our house this morning, the two phones with physical SIMs worked fine and the two phones with eSIMs were SOS mode only. I could log into my AT&T account just fine and all phones showed up correctly. (I’m submitting this from an AT&T 5G connection, no WiFi nearby)

aligns with my experience too. My wife's newer phone was sos but my older one was fine. Both ATT.

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

#338

Post by chasd00 » Thu, Feb 22, 2024, 8:17 PM UTC

wizerdrobe wrote: post #283

Scoundreller wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3/4 might just mean the internal facing side, which is still progress, but doesn’t mean any improvements for end-users.

Anecdotally, I woke up to no signal / “SOS” mode on my iPhone this morning at around 0600 and had service restored around 0830 in South Carolina. However, a coworker in Memphis confirmed he was still out of service at 1000 so it’s regional restoration.

my wife's phone was SOS when she woke up at about 6AM central and finally become operational around 1:30PM central.

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

#339

Post by rescbr » Thu, Feb 22, 2024, 8:18 PM UTC

Scoundreller wrote: post #264

charcircuit wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PoS devices are usually networked. If you don't validate transactions in realtime you would later validate in batch, but that has more risk than validating at the time of transaction.

> If you don't validate transactions in realtime you would later validate in batch yeah, a lot of orgs just don't enable that (or don't have a process to enable it as required, and have difficulty pushing out a notice to do so if the network is down!). Also can only do offline credit card transactions. Can't with our Interac (Canadian-only) debit network. Unsure about Visa/Mastercard debit transactions.

> Unsure about Visa/Mastercard debit transactions.

AIUI, the debit card itself enforces online confirmation, even if the transaction goes through the credit card rail.

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

#340

Post by chasd00 » Thu, Feb 22, 2024, 8:21 PM UTC

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)

In the same boat (AT&T/Texas) but reversed, my wife's newer iphone was SOS but my older one was not. Her's came back online about 1:30PM central after being down since she woke up around 6AM central. afaik both my kid's phones were working, I'm sure i would have heard howls of anguish if not. Both of their phones are maybe 4-5 generations older iphones.