AT&T says massive cellular outage this week not result of cyberattack

Telecommunications company AT&T says the massive service outages this week were not caused by a cyberattack. 

AT&T said Thursday an initial review shows the outage was caused by "the application and execution of an incorrect process" being used while the company was expanding its network, "not a cyber attack."

"We are continuing our assessment to ensure we keep delivering the service that our customers deserve," the company also said Thursday on the social media platform, X.

Earlier this week, customers from multiple phone companies such as T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon reported service outages. 

At about 7 a.m. ET Thursday, about 48,000 AT&T consumers reported that their network was out. Three hours later, that number increased to more than 71,000 outage reports.

Over 12,000 Cricket Wireless consumers were also reporting outages, as well as roughly 3,500 Verizon users.

AT&T said Thursday evening that the wireless service was restored.