'Unlikely' that solar flares caused cellphone outage across US, NOAA says
AT&T is the nation’s largest cellular service provider, making up about 46.9% of the market share, according to Statista.
Space weather explained: What is a solar flare?
The largest explosions in the solar system, a solar flare is an explosion of energy that occurs on the sun’s surface, often appearing as a localized burst of bright light.
The Sun recently emitted a series major solar flares, but officials at multi-organizations, including NOAA, said the flares do not seem to have caused Thursday's nationwide outage of cellular service.
Solar flares are explosions of energy that occur on the Sun’s surface, often appearing as localized bursts of bright light. Although the energy they emit can disrupt technology on Earth and in orbit, NOAA's Space Weather Prediction said the recent flares and outage are unrelated.
"While solar flares can affect communication systems, radar, and the Global Positioning System, based on the intensity of the eruption and associated phenomena, it is highly unlikely that these flares contributed to the widely reported cellular network outages," they said.
The bright flash is one of two major solar flares recently detected by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.
(NASA / SDO / FOX Weather)
According to NOAA, the first significant solar flare peaked at 6:07 p.m. ET Wednesday, while another peaked at 1:32 a.m. ET on Thursday and a third, classified as an X6.3 flare, occurred during the evening.
Solar activity is expected to peak in 2024 as what is known as Solar Cycle 25 reaches its maximum.
A solar cycle is a sequence that causes a flip of the Sun’s magnetic field every 11 years. As the field changes, experts have long warned about fluctuations in the amount of solar activity and sunspots on the surface of the giant star.
SEE THE MASSIVE SOLAR FLARES THE SUN SPIT OUT THIS WEEK
Many Americans woke up Thursday morning with no service on their cellphones. FOX Business reported that outages for AT&T customers, in particular, began about 3:30 a.m. ET, citing Downdetector. The number of outages grew to more than 73,000 customers by about 9 a.m. ET.
"Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning," AT&T said in a statement released at 10:15 a.m. ET. "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."
A woman walks past signage for AT&T in Washington, DC, on February 22, 2024.
(Mandel NGAN / AFP / Getty Images)
The number of AT&T customer outages dropped to just over 4,000 by 2 p.m. ET, according to Downdetector.
Other cellular providers stated that they were not affected by the outage.
"Verizon's network remains fully operational. Some customers may have experienced issues this morning when calling or texting those served by another carrier. Our network continues to function normally," said Verizon in a statement Thursday.
LARGEST SOLAR FLARE IN 6 YEARS LEADS TO PROBLEMS WITH RADIO COMMUNICATIONS WITH PLANES
"We did not experience an outage. Our network is operating normally. Down Detector is likely reflecting challenges our customers were having attempting to connect to users on other networks," said T-Mobile in a statement Thursday.
A cellular tower is seen on February 22, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
(Eric Thayer / Getty Images)
More than 15 hours after the first outages, AT&T revealed that work on its network was to blame.
"Based on our initial review, we believe that today’s outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network, not a cyber attack. We are continuing our assessment of today’s outage to ensure we keep delivering the service that our customers deserve," the company stated.
AT&T is the nation’s largest cellular service provider, making up about 46.9% of the market share, according to Statista. Verizon comes in second at 28.6% of the market, and T-Mobile comes in third with 23.5%.