T-Mobile down: CEO says outage may not be fully fixed for ‘several more hours’

If your T-Mobile service had problems on Monday, you weren’t alone. The third largest mobile operator had widespread problems nationwide that affected its ability to make calls and send text messages.

Users across the country went to Twitter to record the outage. T-Mobile and #TMobiledown rose to the top of the website’s US trend topics for several hours on Monday. The main problem seems to be with calls and text, with users saying the data works normally.

After speculation later in the day attributed the failure to a faulty network configuration or a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile, wrote in a blog post late Monday evening that the failure was due to a “IP traffic problem that caused significant capacity issues in the core of the network during the day.

As he says the carrier has made progress in resolving the problem, Sievert warns that “it may take a few hours for customer calls and SMS to be fully recovered.”

“I can assure you that hundreds of our engineers and supplier partner employees are working to solve this problem,” he continues, adding “that our team will work through the night as needed to make the network fully operational.”

Neville Ray, the technology president of T-Mobile, admitted in a tweet on Monday earlier that the carrier had a breakdown, saying the carrier “hopes to fix this shortly.”

In a tweet that was sent shortly after 6 p.m. According to Ray, the network operator continued to work on eliminating calls and texts and recommended that users use apps such as FaceTime, WhatsApp and iMessage for communication. Sievert repeated this recommendation in his contribution.

Unlike traditional SMS text messages or voice calls, these apps send messages and calls through the data side of the network that is still operating.

During tests on Monday afternoon, T-Mobile’s data services in northern New Jersey seemed to be working 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.

In addition to Google Fi, T-Mobile is the underlying network that offers services for several other network operators such as the prepaid brand Metro as well as for Mint Mobile and Simple Mobile.

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 stated 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. “

Sprint, which is now owned by T-Mobile, did not respond to a request for comment.