Extreme Cold Snap Causes T-Mobile Outages in Texas and Other Parts of the U.S.

AT&T and Verizon appear to be having some issues as well.

By Igor Bonifacic | Feb 16, 2021
NASA | Reuters via Engadget

This story originally appeared on Engadget

If you’re not getting wireless service on your T-Mobile device, you’re not the only one. Inclement winter weather in Texas and other parts of the US is causing issues with the carrier’s network, with Downdetector tracking more than 1,000 outage reports since 1PM ET.

T-Mobile acknowledged the issue this afternoon. “We’re experiencing network issues following severe weather in several areas of the country and especially across Texas,” said Ray Neville, the company’s president of technology, on Twitter. Neville didn’t say when the carrier expects to resolve the outages. AT&T and Verizon (Engadget’s parent company) appear to be going through some of the same problems, but their issues don’t seem to be as widespread.

A spokesperson for Verizon told Engadget the company has had minor issues due to the cold snap. “Verizon’s network is performing well as winter storms make their way across the country with limited impact to our network operations,” the spokesperson said. “In the vast majority of locations, we have backup generators running and we are on standby to refuel generators to ensure our network continues to serve our customers.” Some parts of Verizon’s fiber infrastructure is down, but the carrier says it has crews working on bringing those back online. We’ll update this article when we hear back from AT&T.

The majority of T-Mobile’s outages appear to be clustered in and around Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. Texas is currently going through one of its coldest winters in decades, with temperatures currently below freezing in every part of the state. The unexpected cold and snow are causing havoc on the state’s infrastructure, leaving nearly 3 million customers without power as they try to stay warm.

Update 2:47PM ET: Added comment from Verizon.

If you’re not getting wireless service on your T-Mobile device, you’re not the only one. Inclement winter weather in Texas and other parts of the US is causing issues with the carrier’s network, with Downdetector tracking more than 1,000 outage reports since 1PM ET.

T-Mobile acknowledged the issue this afternoon. “We’re experiencing network issues following severe weather in several areas of the country and especially across Texas,” said Ray Neville, the company’s president of technology, on Twitter. Neville didn’t say when the carrier expects to resolve the outages. AT&T and Verizon (Engadget’s parent company) appear to be going through some of the same problems, but their issues don’t seem to be as widespread.

A spokesperson for Verizon told Engadget the company has had minor issues due to the cold snap. “Verizon’s network is performing well as winter storms make their way across the country with limited impact to our network operations,” the spokesperson said. “In the vast majority of locations, we have backup generators running and we are on standby to refuel generators to ensure our network continues to serve our customers.” Some parts of Verizon’s fiber infrastructure is down, but the carrier says it has crews working on bringing those back online. We’ll update this article when we hear back from AT&T.

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