A major cellular outage on Thursday has affected thousands of AT&T users across the country. Users are unable to send text messages, receive calls, or even contact emergency services.

AT&T made a statement to CNBC saying, “Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning. Our network teams took immediate action and so far three-quarters of our network has been restored. We are working as quickly as possible to restore service to remaining customers.”

Reports of outages began as early as 4 a.m., and they peaked at around 8 a.m. with eighty thousand reports. AT&T shares were down by 2 percent following the countrywide outages.

Emergency services, such as the San Francisco Fire Department and Massachusetts State Police, have had to rely on social media platforms such as X (formerly known as Twitter) to communicate with the general public. 

Along with AT&T users, people on other cell services, such as Verizon and T-Mobile, have also reported several outages as of 10:00 a.m., according to the website Downdetector.com.

T-Mobile has since made a statement to these reports, claiming “Downdetector is likely reflecting challenges our customers were having attempting to connect to users on other networks.” 

Even with responses from the companies, users are still irritated. It is a weekday, meaning a lot of people are at school or work, and cell service is important for communication with others.

“I have AT&T, and I tried to play music this morning, but I couldn’t. I even walked into school earlier than I normally do because I was trying to get a better connection,” senior Julia Autry said.

Hopefully, everything will be sorted out soon, but as of right now, other methods are in action to communicate with others.