Losing Connection; Cell phone users lose service after providers experience issues

Kara Graham, Senior Associate Editor • February 22, 2024

In the 21st century people are more connected than ever. With the ages of social media, the web, and call the world is just a touch away. But what if the internet is stripped and no one can communicate or use their cellphone? This became the reality for many AT&T users this morning. AT&T experienced 32,000 outages just after 4 a.m according to the popular tracking site Downdetector. This number spiked to 50,000 just after 7 a.m with the major spike being at 8 a.m. with over 70,000 losing service. Many customers in Tupelo experienced these issues as well.

“I woke up this morning and I saw the SOS on my phone, I was very confused. So I shut down my phone, and then I powered it back on and it was still saying SOS,” Thomas Roper said.

Students also encountered issues doing their school work when submitting on platforms such as Canvas

“I’m not able to do my usual routine of checking what kind of work I have on Canvas to my phone. It’s messing up the usual routine that I have,” said Rubi De La Cruz

Despite the internet shutdown teachers have learned to adapt in the past. Teachers try to plan backups incase of a potential shut down

“Usually I’ll just turn [the lesson] into paper copies. If it’s something that has to be done online. I’ll replace it with something in the coming days that we would have done and switch it out,” senior english teacher Sara Renick said.

Many were worried about the internet issue due to emergencies. In major citites, such as San Francisco, customers reported issues when trying to contact 911. Many students at Tupelo were not able to contact their family in the event of an emergency.

“In case of an emergency, I would not be able to text my mom, dad or family members in case something happened. So I really think that they should be on this issue ,” Roper said.

In the early afternoon, AT&T released a statement at 2:10 p.m. saying they have resolved the issue.

“We have restored wireless service to all our affected customers. We sincerely apologize to them. Keeping our customers connected remains our top priority, and we are taking steps to ensure our customers do not experience this again in the future,” the statement said.

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About the Contributor

Kara Graham, Associate Editor

Kara Graham is an editor for Wave Media. She has always had a passion for writing and often writes poems and reads in her spare time. She is the recipient of the MSPA Best of Show Lede, MSPA Best of Mississippi Feature Writing/Reporting, and MSPA Best of Mississippi Depth Reporting Winner. She is also an MSPA All-Mississippi Honoree. She had one of her articles published on the Best of SNO website. She is president of the journalism honor society Quill & Scroll. She participated in a virtual newsroom called Headliners of Summer where she was joined by writers from 16 states and 4 countries to write stories of local and national interest. You can access more of her work on the Headliners of Summer website. She hopes to major in journalism at the University of Mississippi. This is her second year writing for Wave Media