AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile customers reporting connectivity issues nationwide

WRAL News on Thursday received reports of customers with AT&T and other cell service providers reporting connectivity issues nationwide.

AT&T appeared to have the largest outage. The cause of the outage was unclear, but AT&T released the following statement:

"Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning. We are working urgently to restore service to them. We encourage the use of Wi-Fi calling until service is restored.”

AT&T also encouraged users to visit this Service Outage Information page.

At 9 a.m. the website Downdetector.com, which allows customers to report outages or connectivity issues, had more than 70,000 reports of AT&T outages nationwide, although the true number is likely much higher.

The number grew from 31,800 reports of AT&T issues before 6 a.m. and 61,450 reports of AT&T outages before 8 a.m.

Most reports came from customers in Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Dallas, San Antonio, Atlanta, San Francisco, San Diego and New York City.

Many users reported issues with cell service specifically, with "SOS" appearing at the top of their phones.

WRAL News on Thursday morning received at least 15 emails about the AT&T issue.

Verizon and T-Mobile users were also reporting issues on Thursday, with around 900 reports of issues from T-Mobile customers and 2,000 reports from Verizon customers.

People who need a way to communicate during the outage can use messaging apps like WhatsApp to text friends and family members using Wi-Fi.