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Beginning early Thursday morning, thousands of AT&T customers, including many in areas of Butler, Lowndes and Crenshaw County, experienced disruptions in phone services due to a widespread network outage. AT&T posted an update on Feb. 22 at 10:15 a.m., acknowledging the issue in a statement. 

“Some of our customers are experiencing wireless service interruptions this morning,” representatives said. “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.”

According to data from Downdetector.com, over 291,000 AT&T users reported outages between 3:30 a.m. and 6:50 a.m. ET. By noon ET on Thursday, Downdetector had received about 40,000 reports of service issues from AT&T customers, down from a peak of more than 70,000 reports. Most complaints were focused on problems with mobile phones or wireless service.

Outages were particularly prevalent in major cities such as Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Chicago, New York, Miami, Dallas, Atlanta, and Indianapolis, according to Downdetector.

Customers of Verizon and T-Mobile have also reported outages with services impacted for customers served through connection with AT&T towers.

Despite efforts to restore service, AT&T has not disclosed the cause of the outage. Outage maps from www.outage.report continue to display areas affected by the disruption.