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by Ina Fried
CNET News
Beyond Binary
November 3, 2009 4:56 PM PST
T-Mobile experiencing widespread
outage
A massive outage left many T-Mobile USA customers across the country unable to
make calls or get data on their cellular phones on Tuesday.
In a statement, T-Mobile said it is working to get its service back up and running.
"T-Mobile customers may be experiencing service
disruptions impacting voice and data," the company said in a
statement. "Our rapid response teams have been mobilized to
restore service as quickly as possible. We will provide updates as more information is
available."
The move comes as the carrier is still working to restore data to T-Mobile Sidekick
users, many of whom have been without some or all of their information for an entire
month.
In a statement on Friday, T-Mobile said many of its Sidekick customers have been able
to restore at least their contacts, although it acknowledged not everyone got their
address books back.
"There was a very small group of customers for whom we were unable to recover any
contacts," the carrier said. It is still working to bring back other data, including
calendars, to-do lists, notes, pictures and other data. "We will share more details
around this restoration process very soon," it said.
Microsoft, whose Danger service powers the Sidekick, initially thought all data might
be lost, but later said it expected to be able to restore most, if not all user data.
T-Mobile experiencing widespread outage | Beyond Binary - ... http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10390097-56.html
1 of 3 11/3/09 11:06 PM
Update 5:04 p.m. PT: In a slightly updated statement, T-Mobile said "Some T-Mobile
customers may be experiencing intermittent service disruptions impacting voice and
some data services."
Reports from users seem to vary. In San Francisco, I was unable to make or receive
calls or get e-mail. Meanwhile, a few users in Boston and Washington, D.C. told me
that their T-Mobile phones appeared to be working.
If other people want to drop me a note of where they are and what's working or not, I'll
get a better sense of things.
5:20 p.m. PT: T-Mobile subscribers in eastern Tennessee, Honolulu, Long Island,
N.Y. all e-mailed me to say they, too, were experiencing outages.
Gretchen Wuersching, an accountant who lives in Mount Vernon, N.Y. and works in
Manhattan said she has been witout service in New York City and Westchester County.
Wuersching said she first noticed her service out in Manhattan and was still out in both
Westchester County and later when she drove to the Bronx.
Meanwhile, a T-Mobile subscriber in Orange County, Calif. said service was
intermittent, while another customer in Denver said her Blackberry could make calls
and handle e-mail, as could friends on T-Mobile's network there, but that text
messages were not working.
Several people in the Salt Lake City area said they were having problems, while
another in Utah said that calls and text messages were not working, but that Web and
e-mail access was continuing.
All in all, it sounds like a very mixed bag for T-Mobile subscribers. Thanks to
everyone who wrote in and I'll let you know when I hear more from T-Mobile.
Update 6:24 p.m. PT:T-Mobile issued an updated statement saying it now believes
only 5 percent of customers are experiencing outages.
"We're making good progress restoring voice and messaging service to affected
customers," a T-mobile representative said. "At this time, approximately 5 percent of
T-Mobile customers are experiencing service disruptions. Issues began at
T-Mobile experiencing widespread outage | Beyond Binary - ... http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10390097-56.html
2 of 3 11/3/09 11:06 PM
approximately 5:30 p.m. Eastern time. Our rapid response team is working
continuously to fully resolve this disruption. We sincerely apologize for the
inconvenience that this has caused our customers."
The e-mails are literally flooding into my in-box from around the country and far more
people are telling me they are experiencing outages of one variety or another than say
they have full service. But perhaps that's the nature of who e-mails.
Among the dozens of e-mails of problems I have gotten was this message from Karen
Jacobson, an analyst and programmer in North Carolina. "My daughter called me from
Chicago to say that her text messaging doesn't work and asked me to call T-Mobile,"
Jacobson said. "I called them and was told that the network was busy. I then tried
texting ... and was unable to text from down here. My friend Crystal called from
Florida, on her landline, to tell me that her T-Mobile has not been able to make or
accept phone calls for at least an hour (and now her boyfriend is angry cause he thinks
she ignored him!)."
For my part, I have data access on my Blackberry Curve, but no ability to make calls.
E-mail service, which was out for a time, seems to be back.
Stay tuned for further updates.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several
times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon
Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail
Ina.
T-Mobile experiencing widespread outage | Beyond Binary - ... http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10390097-56.html
3 of 3 11/3/09 11:06 PM
CNET News
Beyond Binary
November 3, 2009 4:56 PM PST
T-Mobile experiencing widespread
outage
A massive outage left many T-Mobile USA customers across the country unable to
make calls or get data on their cellular phones on Tuesday.
In a statement, T-Mobile said it is working to get its service back up and running.
"T-Mobile customers may be experiencing service
disruptions impacting voice and data," the company said in a
statement. "Our rapid response teams have been mobilized to
restore service as quickly as possible. We will provide updates as more information is
available."
The move comes as the carrier is still working to restore data to T-Mobile Sidekick
users, many of whom have been without some or all of their information for an entire
month.
In a statement on Friday, T-Mobile said many of its Sidekick customers have been able
to restore at least their contacts, although it acknowledged not everyone got their
address books back.
"There was a very small group of customers for whom we were unable to recover any
contacts," the carrier said. It is still working to bring back other data, including
calendars, to-do lists, notes, pictures and other data. "We will share more details
around this restoration process very soon," it said.
Microsoft, whose Danger service powers the Sidekick, initially thought all data might
be lost, but later said it expected to be able to restore most, if not all user data.
T-Mobile experiencing widespread outage | Beyond Binary - ... http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10390097-56.html
1 of 3 11/3/09 11:06 PM
Update 5:04 p.m. PT: In a slightly updated statement, T-Mobile said "Some T-Mobile
customers may be experiencing intermittent service disruptions impacting voice and
some data services."
Reports from users seem to vary. In San Francisco, I was unable to make or receive
calls or get e-mail. Meanwhile, a few users in Boston and Washington, D.C. told me
that their T-Mobile phones appeared to be working.
If other people want to drop me a note of where they are and what's working or not, I'll
get a better sense of things.
5:20 p.m. PT: T-Mobile subscribers in eastern Tennessee, Honolulu, Long Island,
N.Y. all e-mailed me to say they, too, were experiencing outages.
Gretchen Wuersching, an accountant who lives in Mount Vernon, N.Y. and works in
Manhattan said she has been witout service in New York City and Westchester County.
Wuersching said she first noticed her service out in Manhattan and was still out in both
Westchester County and later when she drove to the Bronx.
Meanwhile, a T-Mobile subscriber in Orange County, Calif. said service was
intermittent, while another customer in Denver said her Blackberry could make calls
and handle e-mail, as could friends on T-Mobile's network there, but that text
messages were not working.
Several people in the Salt Lake City area said they were having problems, while
another in Utah said that calls and text messages were not working, but that Web and
e-mail access was continuing.
All in all, it sounds like a very mixed bag for T-Mobile subscribers. Thanks to
everyone who wrote in and I'll let you know when I hear more from T-Mobile.
Update 6:24 p.m. PT:T-Mobile issued an updated statement saying it now believes
only 5 percent of customers are experiencing outages.
"We're making good progress restoring voice and messaging service to affected
customers," a T-mobile representative said. "At this time, approximately 5 percent of
T-Mobile customers are experiencing service disruptions. Issues began at
T-Mobile experiencing widespread outage | Beyond Binary - ... http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10390097-56.html
2 of 3 11/3/09 11:06 PM
approximately 5:30 p.m. Eastern time. Our rapid response team is working
continuously to fully resolve this disruption. We sincerely apologize for the
inconvenience that this has caused our customers."
The e-mails are literally flooding into my in-box from around the country and far more
people are telling me they are experiencing outages of one variety or another than say
they have full service. But perhaps that's the nature of who e-mails.
Among the dozens of e-mails of problems I have gotten was this message from Karen
Jacobson, an analyst and programmer in North Carolina. "My daughter called me from
Chicago to say that her text messaging doesn't work and asked me to call T-Mobile,"
Jacobson said. "I called them and was told that the network was busy. I then tried
texting ... and was unable to text from down here. My friend Crystal called from
Florida, on her landline, to tell me that her T-Mobile has not been able to make or
accept phone calls for at least an hour (and now her boyfriend is angry cause he thinks
she ignored him!)."
For my part, I have data access on my Blackberry Curve, but no ability to make calls.
E-mail service, which was out for a time, seems to be back.
Stay tuned for further updates.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several
times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon
Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail
Ina.
T-Mobile experiencing widespread outage | Beyond Binary - ... http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10390097-56.html
3 of 3 11/3/09 11:06 PM