Outage -- Engadget

outage posts

T-Mobile USA down all over the place? (update: yes)

by Chris Ziegler posted Nov 3rd 2009 at 7:24PM

We're getting reports from sea to shining sea this evening that T-Mobile service is down or intermittent on both voice and data -- particularly bad timing in light of the recent Sidekick drama. We've tested in New York and it's definitely down for us -- both voice and data -- so how's service treating everyone out there?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: We just got an official statement from T-Mobile, and it's confirmed -- service is down. Here's the statement:

"T-Mobile customers may be experiencing service disruptions impacting voice and data. Our rapid response teams have been mobilized to restore service as quickly as possible. We will provide updates as more information is available."

Update 2: All service is now restored, according to the company -- they say about 5 percent of users were affected by the outage, though circumstantial evidence would certainly suggest that the number is higher (especially considering that New York City was one of the dead zones).

Danger's server woes leave Sidekicks in the lurch

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 4th 2009 at 4:48PM

Look, Danger, we know that you're hard at work on... ahem, "other things" right now, but can you please just take five and figure out what's wrong with your servers? Sidekicks rely very, very heavily on the ability to phone home for even basic tasks -- looking up contacts, browsing the web, you name it -- and it seems that Danger's data center has been on the fritz for a solid two days now with symptoms ranging from text message weirdness to dead address books and everything in between, up to and including a completely unusable experience. Frantic calls to T-Mobile are resulting in comped bills for some subscribers, so if you're affected, you might want to give 'em a ring.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Apple: Jailbreaking encourages cell tower terrorism, "catastrophic results"

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Jul 29th 2009 at 12:37PM

If trashing your push messaging wasn't enough to steer you clear of using your iPhone in unauthorized ways, this next bit of news might have you back on the straight and narrow. According to Wired, Apple's latest salvo in the fight over jailbreaking is a claim that pernicious, iPhone wielding techno-hackers at home or abroad could modify the baseband and use it to attack cellphone towers, "rendering the tower entirely inoperable to process calls or transmit data." Of course, the idea that this would become more likely if the legal status of jailbreaking changes is totally absurd, but why let that stand in the way of a legal argument?

In a related note, one of our editors (whose jailbroken iPhone shall remain nameless) got a strange baseband pop-up error this morning -- the very same morning that AT&T is suffering a "massive connectivity outage" throughout the northeast and midwest. Coincidence? Yeah, probably.

Read - iPhone Jailbreaking Could Crash Cellphone Towers, Apple Claims
Read - Anyone Experience the AT&T Outage?

Is T-Mobile's data service down for you?

by Ross Miller posted Feb 15th 2009 at 7:44PM

We've gotten more than a handful of tips about T-Mobile's data service being down to be a coincidence, from a number of different regions of the US -- Kansas City, Cincinnati, Minnesota and Cleveland, among others. We've asked T-Mo for an official comment, but in the interim let us know if you're having problems accessing mobile web or email.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Say it ain't so, AT&T: reports of another East Coast data network outage

by Tim Stevens posted Jan 6th 2009 at 9:19AM

Were you hoping to spend the day glued to your iPhone or BlackBerry, keeping an eye on our live Macworld coverage while in the office? If you've got AT&T on the East Coast, you'd better make sure your wireless data connection is operational. Just like in September we're getting a number of tips from people on the right side reporting outages and error messages when attempting to connect. Meanwhile we're not finding any issues out here in SF or Vegas, and the Midwest appears to be going strong after last week's shenanigans. We've pinged AT&T for deets, but let us know -- what're you seeing on your end?

Update: We still haven't received official word either way, but by the sounds of it data is back up for at least most of you. We'll keep after AT&T for some sort of confirmation.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Is AT&T down for you?

by Nilay Patel posted Dec 28th 2008 at 3:17PM

We're getting way too many tips on AT&T being down for it to be a coincidence -- how's it going for you? Both EDGE and 3G are pretty spotty for us at the moment in Illinois, but they're working in NYC, which jibes with reports of a Midwest-specific outage, but we're also hearing there are troubles nationwide. We've pinged AT&T for an official statement, but in the meantime let us know if things are working for you wherever you are.

Update: Still haven't heard from AT&T, but we just rolled back into Chicago at 5PM CST and we can't connect on either EDGE or 3G. Let's hope things get better, and soon.

Update 2: According to AT&T, a power failure in Bloomfield, Michigan is the culprit, and techs are working around the clock to get everything back up in the Midwest. We're told rebooting phones may help -- it didn't do anything for us, but it might be worth a shot.

Update 3: It's back up, at least in Chicago. How'd everyone spend their day off-grid? We mostly threw the sad face at our NO SERVICE display.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Microsoft promises to keep Xbox Live up through the holidays

by Nilay Patel posted Dec 11th 2008 at 7:21PM

It looks like Microsoft doesn't want a repeat of last year's post-holiday Xbox Live outages, when the service was basically unusable for two weeks -- according to 360 product manager Aaron Greenberg, MS is "well prepared for the type of growth we expect this holiday," and that more Live staffers than ever before will be on hand to fix things if things do go bonkers. From what we've heard Live is more robust than ever now that the NXE and the associated backend changes have been rolled out, so we're hoping things go well -- but we wouldn't necessarily say no to another free Arcade game.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

Microsoft's Xbox Live, Zune services to be down simultaneously this Monday

by Darren Murph posted Sep 26th 2008 at 11:13PM

Simmer down folks -- everything is going to be a-okay. Yes, 'tis true -- Microsoft has indeed scheduled for Xbox Live service maintenance and Zune service tweakage to take place at the exact same time this coming Monday, but it's probably not worth losing your mind over. In fact, Major Nelson goes out of his way to affirm that "when [Xbox Live] service returns, you will not have any new features and you will not have the new Xbox experience update." Point being, your Zune Social, Zune.net forums, all of the Zune Marketplace and Xbox Live services will be offline for up to 24 hours (48 hours for the Zune suite) starting at 12:01 PST on September 29th, but don't expect a Zunephone to pop out of your now-forgotten HD DVD add-on when things come back on. Or you can, but we'd be prepared for unprecedented disappointment.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Read - Xbox Live down time
Read - Zune services down time

Down for everyone or just you? AT&T experiencing a major data outage on the East Coast.

by Paul Miller posted Sep 3rd 2008 at 9:45AM

Ruh-roh. AT&T's wireless data service seems to be down in a major way, at least on the eastern half of the country. We're seeing problems with both Edge and 3G from places such as Boston, New York and St. Louis. It's primarily iPhone users pinging us on this, and in AT&T's forums, but we're guessing it's not just limited to them. How is it looking for you?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: We've just spoken to AT&T and they've told us they're "aware of the reports." We'll keep our ear to the ground and update as soon as we have more.

Update 2: AT&T now tells us that it all came down to a "routing issue" in the Northeast that was patched up at 11:56AM this morning. For what it's worth, BlackBerry and text services were apparently unaffected -- but we doubt that's much consolation to iPhone users in withdrawl.

Apple admits to lost MobileMe messages, bad karma

by Thomas Ricker posted Jul 26th 2008 at 11:44AM

Apple's Push-like MobileMe launch has been such a debacle that they're now in damage control mode. As a result, some poor soul has been tasked by Steve Jobs to post status updates "every other day or so." The first update is already revealing:

Last Friday, 1% of MobileMe subscribers were affected by a "serious problem" with one of Apple's mail server.
Limited web access has been restored to those accounts but full access won't be sorted until next week.
Of these 1%, Apple admits to losing "approximately 10%" of the messages received between July 16 and July 18.

For the rest of you MobileMe subscribers, Apple has added server capacity, tuned the software to scale better, and fixed over 70 bugs to date. So the question is, how's MobileMe working for you?

Is your Samsung Instinct acting up?

by Darren Murph posted Jul 11th 2008 at 6:01PM

At first, we figured our Instinct here at Engadget HQ had just woken up on the wrong side of the bed, but we're now receiving a flood of tips from individuals nationwide having the same issues. Put simply, it seems that certain data services are thoroughly borked, with our Weather app being unable to refresh for at least the past 18 hours (some are reporting even longer). Additionally, we're hearing that folks are having to manually refresh their email and deal with all sorts of error messages when attempting to use any of the data services. So, what gives? Are you having data-related issues with your Instinct? C'mon Sprint, this is your best-selling EV-DO device of all time -- it'd be nice to have it working for the weekend. Oh, and great job showing all those angered iPhone 3G users that your network doesn't have issues, too.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Are BlackBerry services down (again)?

by Ryan Block posted May 3rd 2008 at 11:51AM

It's hard for us to be sure about this stuff for sure in the early stages, but since last night we've gotten a flood of reports from readers that BlackBerry services are down on T-Mobile and possibly also Bell Mobility (if not other providers). What's the story, are you having any trouble? Shout it out in comments -- if you are, do us all a solid and leave your location and provider. Even if it's just an isolated outage, you know you desperately need to get your act together when Palm, of all companies, is taking potshots.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: We've heard that there was indeed a planned outage scheduled for last night, but it was due to end 6 hours ago. And curiously we continue to get feedback that services are still down.

So it looks like it was just pockets after all -- hours later most people seem to be reporting things are solid with service.

BlackBerry service outages keeping your weekend interesting?

by Paul Miller posted Mar 29th 2008 at 1:18PM

Having some BlackBerry troubles? You're not alone, we've been receiving some sporadic tips on the subject, and some forum users have reported outage trouble as well, though for other users it seems just fine. Let us know how your service is doing. Or don't -- this might be just the chance you were looking for to ditch work email and get a start on that spring tan. We won't tell a soul.

Blackberry outage shows that RIM learned nothing in 2007

by Thomas Ricker posted Feb 13th 2008 at 3:40AM

As with RIM's April 2007 outage, the latest downtime has been officially blamed on a flawed software upgrade. According to RIM, the millions left without email can lift their kinked neck and point a crippled digit at an "internal data routing system within the BlackBerry service infrastructure that had been recently upgraded." This upgrade, like the one in 2007, was meant to boost capacity and speed message routing. Right, the same issue which RIM assured us had been resolved last April.

More AT&T wireless outages?

by Ryan Block posted Feb 3rd 2008 at 1:14AM

We've been receiving a steady stream of tips from users around the country today reporting that AT&T, which supposedly just got back up from some apparent sporadic outages spread across the nation, was (is?) back down again today. We haven't seen or heard much, and have yet to confirm whether things ever even fully came back up at all, but what say you? Still experiencing issues? We'll let you know what we hear back from AT&T -- as you may have heard, we had them build a Batline to Ralph's office for just such an occasion.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]