AT&T Outage Leaves Customers Stuck in ‘SOS’ Mode

On Tuesday night, AT&T customers found themselves cut off from their usual cell service, with many seeing “SOS” in place of their signal bars. The widespread outage, which began affecting users after 4 PM ET, left many unable to make calls or use data, prompting a surge in problem reports on Downdetector.

Frustrated customers turned to social media, bombarding AT&T’s Help account on X with complaints about being stuck in SOS mode or having no service at all. The issue persisted for several hours before gradually resolving closer to midnight on the East Coast, but not before leaving thousands in a state of digital limbo. AT&T has yet to provide an explanation for the disruption, leaving users to speculate on what caused the unexpected outage.