I'm in Charlotte NC, and for the past hour and a half, I haven't been able to send or receive text messages on either my phone or another person's phone. I have a friend in Pennsylvania that is having the same problem except that she can't make calls either. My question is, who is having the same problems and is there a nationwide AT&T outage?
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AT&T Nationwide Outage?
- Thread starter Luigi239
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Yeah but new years was almost two hours ago here on the east coast. I could see the west coast having a problem, but things should be ok here by now.
OK. Usually network outages won't just go away after everybody stops calling. Now the network has to recover (which is a slow process).
I can send/receive email OK & make calls but have been having problems sending text messages. Very hit or miss.
SMS are really slow here in Denver. Took 30 minutes to get a text. Data is working and so are calls though.
Being the LAST area in Louisiana to get 3G - we've been experiencing outages since Christmas Eve (date of 3G activation). To make/receive calls, I've kept the 3G service off and rely on WiFi if I need any data services. It SUCKS - but until AT&T gets the kinks worked out - it's the only thing that's working for this area.
It's called a network overload. It happens every year at the same exact time because people, for reasons that are unknown to me, find it necessary to try and call everyone and their mother to wish them a Happy New Year, as if it is the last time anyone will hear from them.
Cellular networks simply can't handle such a high volume. On a related note, it makes absolutely no sense for any cellular carrier to overhaul their entire nationwide system (and spend a ton of money) for one day out of the entire year.
Well I'm going to play devil's advocate for a minute.
What if a national emergency like 9/11 occurs again? Cell phones have become a much bigger part of our life than they were in 2001. If a national emergency was to happen again, then you could be sure that the network in its current state would be overloaded and many people would not be able to get in contact with friends and family, and anybody who needed to call 911 may not be able to.
I'm not saying it's possible to have the network work 100% during periods of high usage, but its important that our phones work when we need them. Oh, and at the very least, make a phone call.
My sister and I were having problems up until the morning of the 2nd. I got one of her text messages (sent from the same room) seven times.
You have to be patient. I kept sending my sister test SMSs and I only noticed the slowdown after about 1AM EST (I am in South Carolina).
You have to be patient. I kept sending my sister test SMSs and I only noticed the slowdown after about 1AM EST (I am in South Carolina).
That won't happen. Networks monitor their peaks and they work to ensure that there is enough capacity to handle their peaks and then a little more. If a situation like 9/11 happened again it would be up to the American public to not use their phones except if they absolutely had to. Since we know that won't happen, expect some major network overloads. By the way I believe cell phone networks reserve some capacity for dialing 911, so if you needed emergency services during a national disaster you'd hopefully be able to get through.
The smart thing to do is work out an alternative way of communication with those most important to you in case of an emergency. My best guess even Facebook and Twitter would become overloaded following another 9/11 type event. AOL IM or another IM service would be a good start.
If we demanded cellular networks be able to handle the loads that it felt or will feel during disasters we would be forced to pay a lot more than $39.99 for the basic plan.
Which is exactly why most older and more experienced folk still keep a landline, despite the temptation to go cellular only.
I remember a few years back with the latest Northeast electrical blackout. It only took a few hours before many cell towers (and cell phones) ran out of juice and/or capacity, and became useless.
At that point, landlines were a necessity to communicate. Worse, even those in our neighborhood with landlines only had cordless phones ... which don't work without power. We were the only home with an old Princess handset that still worked.
It was grimly amusing to have everyone drop by our house to borrow the only working phone. Reminded me a bit of that old Twilight Zone about the house with the only bomb shelter in the neigborhood.
sorry to bump such an old thread.... but even here in Nashville, tn with barely half a million people downtown I couldn't send a text, make a call, or for that matter even use a simple data messager like im+ to gchat to my android friends on verizon. I even tried turning off 3g. Result? We spent an hour looking for our friends and missed meeting up with our group to watch the giant guitar drop.
Thanks AT&T.
Thanks AT&T.