COLUMBIA, S.C. — AT&T customers across the U.S. said on Thursday they were not able to make or receive phone calls. That created a ripple with other providers. Verizon, T-Mobile and Cricket Wireless have also reported outages.
For many, making calls, sending texts or using data was not possible for most of the day.
Brett Robertson, an assistant professor at USC’s College of Information and Communications, said people rely on their phones daily.
“Well, as human beings, we rely greatly on cellular data to do a lot of different tasks and everyday routines, not just making phone calls or texting," said Robertson. “And so this is impacting a lot of people throughout their workday and their routines and their norms.
Makayla Arceneaux, an AT&T customer and college student in Columbia, said being able to reach her family is essential.
“I guess it’s very serious,” said Arceneaux. “Because we’re obviously away from home, so to be able to get into contact with any relatives or family members is very important."
Kelshia Huffman is a Verizon customer who travels daily between Orangeburg and Richland counties. She says phone service needs to be reliable.
“If it’s a tower issue I hope that they can spread across even in the rural areas I know living in North, South Carolina it’s kind of very sketchy especially once it turns nighttime,” said Huffman. “You need your cell phone so hopefully they can start progressing with the towers or even just adding mobile data or Wi-Fi spots throughout the cities.”
Robertson says moving forward, users should try to have an emergency plan in case this happens again.
“I think one of the best ways we can prepare ourselves is to always have an emergency communication plan in place before something like this happens,” said Robertson. “Whether you know cellular service is going to be down what would you do in the event that you would need to contact somebody.”
AT&T encouraged users to use wi-fi calling. This is a built-in feature on most phones. To turn it on, check the phone settings. The company has not released any details on what caused the outage.