Southeast Missouri affected by national AT&T, Cricket Wireless outages

Tens of thousands of AT&T cellphone users across the country, including those in Southeast Missouri, dealt with cellular network outages Thursday, Feb. 22.

At its peak disruption, AT&T had more than 70,000 outages in locations including Houston, Atlanta and Chicago, the Associated Press reported. By the afternoon, service had been restored to 75% of those who had lost service.

“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning. We are working urgently to restore service to them. We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored,” AT&T said in a statement.

AT&T gave no reason for the outages Thursday.

Locally, the issues affected customers across Southeast Missouri. Police and fire departments warned via social media posts that the outage might affect 911 services, but later Cape Girardeau County Sheriff Ruth Ann Dickerson said calls seemed to be coming through.

“We tested it several times,” Dickerson said. “The 911 (number) seems to work off and on and the texting so far has worked the whole time. So far our main (non-emergency) number has continued to work.”

If a caller experiences problems with 911, Cape Girardeau County operates a TEXT 911 system where people can text, rather than call, to report emergencies.

Reuters reported Thursday that the Federal Communications Commission said it was working with AT&T to understand the cause of the incident. A White House spokesperson told the news organization the company has no reason to believe the outage was because of a cyber or security incident.