When a portion of AT&T's network went offline on Thursday, leaving thousands of its mobile users without a simple way to communicate, it didn't take long for people across the U.S. to panic. But now that it's fixed, it begs the question of what we can - and should - learn from it.
AT&T's network went down early on Thursday, causing thousands of its users to be left without both phone and data access. In the early morning hours, it wasn't clear what caused the problem, but an increasing number of users quickly turned to Internet tools like DownDetector and others to notify the community of the outage. Their panic was palpable, and answers were slow to emerge.
"If you were in an area where Wi-Fi was unavailable, and/or if unfamiliar with how to hop onto Wi-Fi, [the outage was] very troubling," Syracuse University Professor Lee McKnight told Tech Times in an interview. "In other circumstances, the outage was an annoyance but not a life and death matter."
For some, the outage may have truly been a life-and-death matter. The outage prevented some users from being able to reach emergency services - a must in a time when seconds count. In San Francisco, the 911 center was operational, but it couldn't provide easy answers on what those suffering an emergency could do while the network was down.
"If you are an AT&T customer and cannot get through to 911, then please try calling from a landline," the center posted on X. "If that is not an option, then please try to get ahold of a friend or family member who is a customer of a different carrier and ask them to call 911 on your behalf."
The last thing anyone wants to be thinking about in an emergency is which wireless network provider a friend or family member uses.
"For some users, this was quite impactful," said Kevin Cleary, Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Buffalo School of Management.
AT&T's Quasi-Response
Late on Thursday, AT&T said that the problem had not been caused by a cyberattack, as some had feared, but rather a glitch.
"Based on our initial review, we believe that today's outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network," the wireless carrier said in a statement.
AT&T's response didn't necessarily quell fears. Even after AT&T provided some insight into what happened, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said it was pressing on with an investigation, and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), along with the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation said they were all working with AT&T on the matter.
"We are being told AT&T has no reason to think this was a cyber or security incident," White House spokesperson John Kirby told Reuters. "But the bottom line is we don't have all the answers."
A Bigger Threat?
Syracuse University's McKnight said the outage has been "bad for AT&T's reputation," and he's unsure how AT&T didn't fix the problem before it went public. But he offered an even more concerning prediction about the outage.
"It likely won't be the last," he said.
If that's the case, users will need to know how to respond the next time around. And in a world where landlines are increasingly being tossed out in favor of mobile-only communication, any protracted network outage is dangerous - especially if it's accompanied by an inability to reach emergency services.
"Imagine facing this event, but this happening to all telecom providers over the course of days, and oh, by the way, the power goes out," Cleary said. "Anyone impacted by this personally, professionally, or otherwise needs to ask, 'How do I plan for this if it happens again?'"
On the professional side - specifically AT&T employees - McKnight argues AT&T staff members need improved "training for their staff." He added AT&T could benefit from an "upgraded AI tool to catch errors and improved operational procedures to prevent a future recurrence."
For AT&T users, the answer is less clear. Having a landline (if they can afford it) or perhaps relying on another wireless network could help. But in many cases, the professors say, users are entirely reliant upon the network provider to get it right.
Worst of all, Thursday's outage may have only been a small preview of what could eventually be much worse.
"This is just an infinitesimal taste of what a large cyberattack could look like on critical U.S. infrastructure," said Cleary. "I don't say this to scare or be alarmist. But the post-mortem and lessons learned from these types of failures can actually be instructive as we plan for future failures - whether or not these failures are caused by an adversarial cyberattack, natural events, or human error."
In other words, don't be surprised if we experience something far more damaging. And don't be surprised if its effects are far greater than this most recent AT&T outage.
About the author: Don Reisinger is a longtime freelance writer who has written on topics as far-ranging as technology and business to science topics. His work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Fortune, Inc., The New York Times, Business Insider, Tom's Guide, and many others. Follow him at https://muckrack.com/donreisinger and https://twitter.com/donreisinger
