AT&T outage impacts 911, wireless customers as company blames 'software issue'

Aug. 28 (UPI) -- A number of AT&T customers, trying to connect with the wireless network Tuesday night, were hit with an outage that also impacted 911 service in several cities as the telecommunications giant blamed a "software issue."

"We are working to address a software issue that may affect the ability of a limited number of our customers to connect to our wireless network," an AT&T spokesperson said in an email to CNN , adding that the outage was not nationwide.

AT&T saw a spike in outages reported Tuesday evening, according to Downdetector .

The outages impacted 911 service in Tennessee's Hawkins County and non-emergency phone lines for Florida's Tampa police.

The outage "may affect the ability of some AT&T wireless customers to reach our 911 center," Hawkins County wrote in a post on X, as it urged residents to call its non-emergency line instead.

Tampa police reported its 911 lines were not affected, but that "There has been a reported outage with our non-emergency and district phone lines."

"Thank you for your patience while we work to resolve this issue," the department wrote Tuesday night in a post on X.

There has been a reported outage with our non-emergency and district phone lines.

911 has NOT been affected.

An update will be provided once service is restored.

Thank you for your patience while we work to resolve this issue. pic.twitter.com/0kizzh4OV3 — Tampa Police Department (@TampaPD) August 27, 2024

Hours later, the city of North Little Rock in Arkansas reported its 911 service had been restored.

"The service outage impacting the ability to deliver AT&T Mobility wireless 911 calls in your area has been resolved. AT&T worked with its equipment vendor to restore service to the impacted equipment," the city reported in a post on X. "All service has been restored."

In February, AT&T blamed an internal issue , and not a cyberattack, for a massive service outage that impacted customers' ability to get a wireless signal.

While AT&T did not elaborate on the exact cause of Tuesday's software issue, which was not as widespread, hours later the spike in outages began to flattened.

"Keeping our customers connected is our highest priority," the AT&T spokesperson added, "so we appreciate their patience as we worked to resolve the issue."