On the morning of October 23, AT&T users across the United States faced a significant service disruption that left many unable to make calls and led to widespread frustration on social media. Among those affected were members of the Chinese community in Southern California, who reported issues with receiving verification codes on their phones, initially fearing their service had been suspended due to non-payment. As of the time of this report, AT&T had not responded to inquiries regarding the incident.
According to data from Downdetector, a website that tracks service outages, the problems peaked between 9 AM and 10 AM on October 23, with over 4,000 users reporting issues by 10:30 AM. The statistics indicated that 68% of users experienced difficulties with mobile phone services, preventing them from making or receiving calls. Additionally, 17% reported problems with mobile data services, and 15% mentioned issues with their wired internet connections.
As news of the disruption spread, many users took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to voice their frustrations. One user expressed, “My phone has been completely useless for the past 25 minutes.” Similar complaints flooded in, with numerous individuals noting that their calls wouldn’t connect or were unexpectedly dropped. In response, AT&T’s customer service team actively engaged with customers on X, encouraging those affected to reach out via direct messages. They assured users that they were committed to assisting with the ongoing issues.
Ms. Liu, a resident of Monterey Park in Southern California, shared her experience with AT&T’s services. She mentioned that on the morning of the outage, she was unable to receive a verification code while trying to log into an app at around 10 AM. After several unsuccessful attempts, she initially thought it was due to a lack of payment, only to later confirm that her account was set for automatic payments. Although her service was restored by noon, she noted the disruption had caused considerable inconvenience in her daily life.
