AT&T customers report massive outages affecting phone service across the United States

(CNN) — AT&T’s network went out for many of its customers Thursday morning, leaving them unable to make calls, send text messages or use the Internet.

Although Verizon and T-Mobile customers also reported some network outages, they appeared to be much less widespread. T-Mobile and Verizon said their networks were not affected by AT&T’s service outage and that customers who reported an outage may not be able to reach customers with AT&T.

More than 73,000 AT&T customers reported outages to digital service tracking site DownDetector. This is not an exhaustive figure: it only tracks reported outages. Although outage reports decreased slightly at 5 a.m. ET, they improved by 7 a.m. ET and have continued to increase.

AT&T acknowledged widespread power outages, but did not provide a cause for the system failure.

“Some of our customers are experiencing a disruption in wireless service this morning. We are working immediately to restore service to them,” AT&T said in a statement. “We recommend using Wi-Fi Calling until service is restored.”

The company is responding to customer complaints online, and asking them to message customer service directly.

AT&T has experienced sporadic outages in recent days, including a temporary 911 outage in parts of the Southeastern United States. Although power outages do occur from time to time, prolonged power outages are extremely rare across the country.

Several local governments said their services were being disrupted due to the AT&T outage.

The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management said in a statement Thursday morning that its 911 center remained operational, but many AT&T customers were unable to reach the emergency line due to the power outage. He suggested people call from a landline to dial 911 or find someone with a rival service.

“We are aware of an issue affecting AT&T Wireless customers when making and receiving phone calls (including 911),” the department said in its post. “We are actively participating and monitoring this.”

The Upper Arlington Fire Department in Ohio said an AT&T outage was affecting its smoke alarms. St. Joseph County, Michigan recommends residents use Wi-Fi to call 911 if they cannot reach 911 on the AT&T network. Cobb County, Georgia said its 911 operations were not affected by the outage, but noted that customers may seek alternative ways to contact emergency services. Cabell County, West Virginia said customers who are unable to reach 911 can text 911 as a last resort.

The DownDetector website says about 1,000 outages were reported by Verizon and T-Mobile customers Thursday morning. “We did not experience any disruption,” T-Mobile said in a statement. “Our network is operating normally.”

Verizon made similar comments, saying it was not affected by AT&T’s closure.

“Verizon’s network is operating normally,” Verizon told CNN in a statement. “Some customers experienced problems this morning calling or sending messages to customers served by another provider. We continue to monitor the situation.”

User reports on DownDetector regarding the T-Mobile outage, the company said, “likely reflect the challenges our customers were experiencing when attempting to connect with users on other networks.”

DownDetector “provides real-time status information for over 12,000 services on 47 websites representing 47 countries,” the website says.

This is a developing story and will be updated.