<p>Washington: White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Thursday the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were looking into an <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/business/companies/att-says-wireless-service-has-been-restored-2906696">AT&T outage</a>, and that the Federal Communications Commission was in touch with the company.</p><p>Kirby said the Department of Commerce faced some disruptions as a result of the outage but those were not "crippling."</p><p><strong>Why it is important</strong></p><p>AT&T said three-quarters of its network had been restored after a cellular phone outage on Thursday disrupted calls and text messages for thousands of US users.</p><p>The wireless carrier, whose 5G network covers around 290 million people across the United States, grappled with interruptions to its service for several hours.</p><p><strong>Key quotes</strong></p><p>"But the bottom line is we don't have all the answers," Kirby told reporters on Thursday when asked about the cause of the outage.</p><p>When asked if government communication was disrupted by AT&T outages, Kirby said: "There was some impact to Commerce (Department) but I don't know the extent of that, I don't think it was crippling." He added that the FirstNet nationwide public safety network was hit but had been fully restored.</p><p>US officials have been told that AT&T had no reason to think this was a cybersecurity incident, Kirby said.</p><p><strong>Context</strong></p><p>The outage affected people's ability to reach emergency services by dialing 911, according to online posts by government departments in several US cities.</p><p>The FCC said it was investigating the incident, while the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is a unit of DHS, said it was working with AT&T to understand the cause.</p><p>Users of Verizon, T-Mobile and UScellular also faced disruptions, but they were more limited than the AT&T reports. </p>
<p>Washington: White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Thursday the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were looking into an <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/business/companies/att-says-wireless-service-has-been-restored-2906696">AT&T outage</a>, and that the Federal Communications Commission was in touch with the company.</p><p>Kirby said the Department of Commerce faced some disruptions as a result of the outage but those were not "crippling."</p><p><strong>Why it is important</strong></p><p>AT&T said three-quarters of its network had been restored after a cellular phone outage on Thursday disrupted calls and text messages for thousands of US users.</p><p>The wireless carrier, whose 5G network covers around 290 million people across the United States, grappled with interruptions to its service for several hours.</p><p><strong>Key quotes</strong></p><p>"But the bottom line is we don't have all the answers," Kirby told reporters on Thursday when asked about the cause of the outage.</p><p>When asked if government communication was disrupted by AT&T outages, Kirby said: "There was some impact to Commerce (Department) but I don't know the extent of that, I don't think it was crippling." He added that the FirstNet nationwide public safety network was hit but had been fully restored.</p><p>US officials have been told that AT&T had no reason to think this was a cybersecurity incident, Kirby said.</p><p><strong>Context</strong></p><p>The outage affected people's ability to reach emergency services by dialing 911, according to online posts by government departments in several US cities.</p><p>The FCC said it was investigating the incident, while the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is a unit of DHS, said it was working with AT&T to understand the cause.</p><p>Users of Verizon, T-Mobile and UScellular also faced disruptions, but they were more limited than the AT&T reports. </p>