Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Cellular Service Outage Affecting Users in Southeastern United States

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
65,232
33,508



AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile customers in the southeastern United States may be seeing a widespread cellular outage that's preventing them from using voice and data services. Downdetector.com is showing outages in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and Indiana for all four carriers.

cellularoutagemap-800x436.jpg
T-Mobile outage map via Downdetector.com​

According to a Sprint representative that spoke to Re/code, the issue is related to a local exchange provider that works with AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile.
"We are aware of the impacts to service in which customers across multiple carriers may be unable to access voice and some data services," the Sprint representative said. "This appears to be an issue caused by a local exchange provider and our network team is working with the provider to restore service to impacted customers as quickly as possible."
Click to expand...
Sprint said the company is working on a fix, as did representatives from Verizon and AT&T. AT&T said it's working to restore service, while Verizon said its engineers were working with "vendor partners" to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

It is not clear when service will be restored for affected customers.

Update: According to telecommunications industry sources that spoke to Re/code, the service issues affecting all four carriers have been caused by a problem with AT&T's landline network.
AT&T is the dominant landline provider for the region, and all the major cellular providers use its networks for backhaul -- that is, helping transport the data once it leaves their collection of cellular towers.
Click to expand...
AT&T says its engineers have found a hardware-related issue and are aiming to fix it to restore service "as quickly as possible."

Article Link: Cellular Service Outage Affecting Users in Southeastern United States
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/08/04/cellular-service-outage-southeastern-us/
gumbyjunior1

gumbyjunior1

macrumors regular
Nov 22, 2013
122
53
'Merica
I just don't understand how it's 2015, and these providers still lease out/contract towers to other providers. Outsourcing at its finest instead of having their own dedicated services.
And I still pay a arm and a leg!
 
  • Like
Reactions: KdParker and Jstuts5797
W

waitforitben

macrumors newbie
Sep 9, 2014
12
18
Nashville
This is ridiculous. As an employee in a huge nationwide retailer, all our systems went down and we were only able to accept credit cards with voice approvals from the bank.

As for my personal service, I'm paying them so much money and here they are cutting corners by outsourcing to different providers.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jamalien and Statusnone88
iFanaddic

iFanaddic

macrumors 6502a
Sep 24, 2008
819
242
Montréal, Canada
As someone who works for a carrier all I can think of is the waiting time for customers service tomorrow morning.. Tons of idiots asking for their service to be refunded for the 30 minutes or so that their service wasn't working..

(I should really get out of Customer Service I don't like what it's doing to me..)
 
  • Like
Reactions: aristobrat and AlliFlowers
S

SSD-GUY

macrumors 65816
Sep 20, 2012
1,155
2,106
Interstellar
iFanaddic said:
As someone who works for a carrier all I can think of is the waiting time for customers service tomorrow morning, tons of idiots asking for their service to be refunded for the 30 minutes their service wasn't working..

(I should really get out of Customer Service I don't like what it's doing to me..)
Click to expand...

People pay for a service, any interruption means they should be reimbursed.

On the flip side when payment is due for such service, no one from the company really cuts the customer any slack.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JackANSI, paulrbeers, jbachandouris and 9 others
iFanaddic

iFanaddic

macrumors 6502a
Sep 24, 2008
819
242
Montréal, Canada
SSD-GUY said:
People pay for a service, any interruption means they should be reimbursed.

On the flip side when payment is due for such service, no one from the company really cuts the customer any slack.
Click to expand...

I agree, and credit should be expected should the interruption last over 24-48 hours.. Considering the average service (in Canada) is around 65$ asking for a credit for anything under than that would give less than 4$..

Then you let your customer know and he/she gets insulted "that's all you give me?" In my head:"What were you expecting" And then people start asking for all kinds of monatary compensation... And they end up waiting over an hour for a few worthless dollars a ruining hundreds of employee's day.

the canadian compagny I work for will actually be very flexible in terms of payments and delays, up to 90days late without interuptions. Although I realize that's not the case everywhere. Not all compagnies are sharks. Just like not customers are not all idiots.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: richhh and SSD-GUY
oneMadRssn

oneMadRssn

macrumors 603
Sep 8, 2011
6,042
14,170
gumbyjunior1 said:
I just don't understand how it's 2015, and these providers still lease out/contract towers to other providers. Outsourcing at its finest instead of having their own dedicated services.
And I still pay a arm and a leg!
Click to expand...

Usually a carrier builds the tower, then sells it to an investor and leases it back from that company. This is a very typical arrangement that happens in lots of industries. Most commercial buildings are handled the same way; malls, corporate buildings, factories, etc.

This has many benefits to all parties involved. For the seller, they can turn money frozen in assets into liquid capital and use it to develop more resources. For example, a carrier can take $1mil to build a tower, sell it with a leaseback for $1mil, use that $1mil to build another tower, sell it with a leaseback for $1mil, etc etc. This way, over the course of some time, they get many towers for the same $1mil being used over and over. Another benefit to the seller is it fixes the costs. For example, a carrier's tower might have maintenance needs that are unpredictable and depend on weather, property taxes that might go up, etc. With this arrangement, they just pay a constant and known monthly or annual lease that is fixed in price, where there is no risk of it going up in the immediate future; this allows them to budget more easily. For the investor that takes on all the risks, they can charge a premium for this service and earn some interest. There are also certain tax benefits for both parties involved.

This isn't bad outsourcing - it's efficient use of resources. Why should a carrier have a ton of money sunk in assets when they could be using that money to build more resources. I'd rather the carriers had access to more towers, rather than owned a few towers.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kdarling, mw360, 5105973 and 4 others
japanime

japanime

macrumors 68030
Feb 27, 2006
2,916
4,846
Japan
iFanaddic said:
As someone who works for a carrier all I can think of is the waiting time for customers service tomorrow morning.. Tons of idiots asking for their service to be refunded for the 30 minutes or so that their service wasn't working..

(I should really get out of Customer Service I don't like what it's doing to me..)
Click to expand...

Yes. If you think the customers are "idiots," you really do need to get out of "customer service."
 
  • Like
Reactions: FloatingBones, iDuel, bstpierre and 13 others
S

Saturnine

macrumors 65816
Oct 23, 2005
1,492
2,476
Manchester, UK
iFanaddic said:
As someone who works for a carrier all I can think of is the waiting time for customers service tomorrow morning.. Tons of idiots asking for their service to be refunded for the 30 minutes or so that their service wasn't working..

(I should really get out of Customer Service I don't like what it's doing to me..)
Click to expand...

As someone who trains customer service
teams, they're not idiots and any customer service advisor who thinks so is probably in the wrong job. You cannot do a good job if you're predisposed to that opinion.

Customers don't pay for three course meals when they only receive two courses. Nor do they pay the full-fare for a journey when they were only taken three quarters of the way.

It is a horrible, thankless task dealing with irate customers whose anger has been exacerbated by long phone queues but it would all be avoided if carriers offered an automatic pro-rata refund for any obvious service outage. Whether or not a ~50c refund is worthwhile is a matter of opinion, but it is a matter of fact that the customer should be entitled to it if they so desire.
 
  • Like
Reactions: iDuel, bstpierre, paulrbeers and 15 others
Statusnone88

Statusnone88

macrumors 68000
Jun 19, 2010
1,578
827
-Garry- said:
As someone who trains customer service
teams, they're not idiots and any customer service advisor who thinks so is probably in the wrong job. You cannot do a good job if you're predisposed to that opinion.

Customers don't pay for three course meals when they only receive two courses. Nor do they pay the full-fare for a journey when they were only taken three quarters of the way.

It is a horrible, thankless task dealing with irate customers whose anger has been exacerbated by long phone queues but it would all be avoided if carriers offered an automatic pro-rata refund for any obvious service outage. Whether or not a ~50c refund is worthwhile is a matter of opinion, but it is a matter of fact that the customer should be entitled to it if they so desire.
Click to expand...

Yes. You're so right. The best way to get what you want is scream and yell at someone who has NOTHING to do with why your cell phone service/Internet service isn't working.

Yes, in customer service you do need to have a certain level of patience with people. But you don't need to be crapped on by morons with anger issues. There's a way to calm down customers, without being rude, but still standing up for yourself.
 
  • Like
Reactions: richhh, Tubamajuba, Jstuts5797 and 2 others
iFanaddic

iFanaddic

macrumors 6502a
Sep 24, 2008
819
242
Montréal, Canada
-Garry- said:
As someone who trains customer service
teams, they're not idiots and any customer service advisor who thinks so is probably in the wrong job. You cannot do a good job if you're predisposed to that opinion.

Customers don't pay for three course meals when they only receive two courses. Nor do they pay the full-fare for a journey when they were only taken three quarters of the way.

It is a horrible, thankless task dealing with irate customers whose anger has been exacerbated by long phone queues but it would all be avoided if carriers offered an automatic pro-rata refund for any obvious service outage. Whether or not a ~50c refund is worthwhile is a matter of opinion, but it is a matter of fact that the customer should be entitled to it if they so desire.
Click to expand...

"As someone who trains customer service
teams"
most of the time those trainers are the ones who have lost the notion of what it's like to speak to the customer. (Not speaking for you, just in general)

"You cannot do a good job if you're predisposed to that opinion."
Who said I was predisposed? I worked in customer relations for 15 years. But if you knew half the things people will allow themselves to say just because they're not in front of you.. Call center jobs have some of the highest percentage of depression/burnout leave. (Known fact within the industry) I just think people should behave with agents they same way they would if they were in front of them. In the end they made me this way, I use to love customer service.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: richhh, Norbs12, 5105973 and 2 others
C

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,392
19,461
DoctaDre said:
LOL well then in that case I'm sure power is out somewhere in the country and that'll effect charging an iPhone so we best report that too...haha
Click to expand...
If it's in a large enough geographic/populace area (and thus can have other repercussions even further away), why not?
 
  • Like
Reactions: DoctaDre
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom