T-Mobile had nationwide problems on Monday.
Graphic from Pixabay / Illustration from CNET
If your T-Mobile service had problems on Monday, you weren’t alone. The third largest mobile operator appears to have widespread problems nationwide affecting its ability to make calls and text messages.
It is unclear what caused the problem or when it will be fixed. Users across the country went to Twitter to record the outage. T-Mobile achieved first place in the US trend topics of the website from 5:01 p.m. ET.
The main problem seems to be with calls and text, with users saying the data works normally.
Neville Ray, the technology president of T-Mobile, admitted in a tweet that the network operator had a failure and said that the network operator “hopes to fix this shortly”.
Our engineers are working to solve a voice and data problem that affects customers across the country. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope that this will be resolved shortly.
– Neville (@NevilleRay), June 15, 2020
When testing in northern New Jersey, T-Mobile’s data services appeared to be functioning normally, although I was unable to send text messages and had problems making calls with a OnePlus 8 5G.
A CNET editor in New York City was able to send text and iMessage using an iPhone, but no calls worked on either device. An editor in the San Francisco Bay Area noted that calls were not made through Google Fi, the mobile phone service offered by Google, that operates on the respective T-Mobile, Sprint, and U.S. networks. Cellular based, worked. However, data and text about Fi worked.
Downdetector.com, a website where users can report outages, has encountered issues with all major mobile operators – AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint.
AT&T and Verizon each state that their respective networks operate normally and without problems. Tests in northern New Jersey using AT&T and Verizon phones showed no problems with calls, text, or data, except when trying to call a T-Mobile phone via SMS or phone.
“Verizon’s network is working well. We are aware that another network operator has network problems,” a Verizon spokeswoman told CNET in a statement. “Calls to and from this network operator may receive an error message.”
The company also had problems with the spread of Downdetector that its network is down. “Websites like Downdetector.com use limited crowdsourcing data from sample social posts that are often statistically insignificant or factually incorrect,” the spokeswoman said.
“Many factors can contribute to a false report on a third-party website.” Simply summarizing this data can result in erroneous reports of network performance interruptions that lead to widespread misunderstandings among wireless users. “
T-Mobile referred to Ray’s tweet when asked to comment. Sprint, which is now owned by T-Mobile, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This story is developing …