AT&T and Verizon customers began reporting outages around noon ET on Tuesday
AT&T and Verizon customers began reporting outages around noon ET on Tuesday (Pictures: Getty Images)

Many AT&T and Verizon customers were left unable to make calls – including to 911 – as the cell phone providers experienced outages.

Around noon ET on Tuesday, AT&T and Verizon users reporting problems and the volume of issues escalated over the next few hours, according to DownDetector.

Some AT&T customers could not get through the 911 line. The cell phone company notified Hanover County Department of Emergency Communication that there was a multi-state outage affecting emergency calls, WRIC reported.

Verizon sent out a notice stating: ‘Some customers, primarily in the Northeast and Midwest, are experiencing issues when calling or texting with customers served by another carrier. We are continuing to monitor the situation.’

Verizon stated that customers mostly in the Northeast and Midwest reported service issues
Verizon stated that customers mostly in the Northeast and Midwest reported service issues (Picture: Shutterstock)

AT&T customer complaints rose quickly in the early afternoon to 3,074 outage reports shortly before 5pm ET.

Meanwhile, Verizon customer outage reports began climbing around 2pm ET and peaked around 5pm ET at 2,583 complaints.

At least 24 states were affected by the outage, according to the Daily Mail.

Specific issues included dropped calls, not being able to hear the person on the other line and even internet connectivity issues.

Verizon last experienced an outage in January
Verizon last experienced an outage in January (Picture: Shutterstock)

The number of outage reports began declining for AT&T around 5.30pm ET and was down to about 680 around 7pm ET.

Verizon had a similar pattern, with outage reports dropping steeply after 5pm ET and numbering just over 100 at 7pm ET.

Authorities said the states that were impacted were Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

It is not the only outage for the service providers, which are two of the biggest in the US.

Verizon’s last outage occurred in January and ran about four hours.

But AT&T has had more outages in the past several months, the more recent happening on May 22. It affected only customers in North Carolina and Virginia.

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