Recent reports indicate a massive T-Mobile outage is ongoing. Though reports are coming in for all of the big three US carriers (a phrase I will never get used to saying), as well as many smaller MVNOs, AT&T and Verizon claim their networks are operating as usual.
Top outage reports on Downdetector. (Also Fortnite, apparently.) Image: Downdetector.
Reports are widespread, but beginning to trail off at the time of writing, with several major markets reporting issues, though it doesn’t seem to be a universal problem. (My own T-Mobile service in the Boston area is just fine.)
T-Mobile’s map of reports on Downdetector.
Although reports are coming in across carriers, only T-Mobile is acknowledging the outage. An AT&T spokesperson tells us its network is operating normally, and Verizon is actively claiming it’s unaware of any issues.
Our engineers are working to resolve a voice and data issue that has been affecting customers around the country. We’re sorry for the inconvenience and hope to have this fixed shortly.
— Neville (@NevilleRay) June 15, 2020
Speaking to representatives from both AT&T and Verizon, the companies believe the reports of issues with their networks on Downdetector are incorrect, and that the problem stems from another carrier, with only calls to and from that carrier potentially affected. T-Mobile’s Neville Ray has since claimed that things are starting to be fixed. Data is now available, and “some calls are completing.”
Teams continue to work as quickly as possible to fix the voice & messaging problems some are seeing.
Data services are now available & some calls are completing. Alternate services like WhatsApp, Signal, iMessage, Facetime etc. are available. Thanks for your patience. https://t.co/uQiGSAFEAH— Neville (@NevilleRay) June 15, 2020
There’s been some speculation, together with a set of scary graphs and out of context links to sites like this, that the outage is the result of a DDoS attack, but Cloudflare’s Matthew Prince (i.e., the guy in the position to see if it’s a DDoS) claims the company isn’t observing anything like that, and such fears are unfounded.
There’s a lot of buzz right now about a “massive DDoS attack” targeting the US, complete with scary-looking graphs (see Tweet below). While it makes for a good headline in these already dramatic times, it’s not accurate. The reality is far more boring. 1/X https://t.co/4wDIlKnfQg
— Matthew Prince 🌥 (@eastdakota) June 15, 2020
An explanation will probably be forthcoming over the next few hours or days. In the meantime, those of you that need to stay connected should probably stick to the range of Wi-Fi. Though issues aren’t universal, they are widely reported.
