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Peter Blackstock
| Austin American-Statesman
The winter storm caused disruptions to cell phone and internet services for users of some of the major operators and providers, according to DownDetector.com, which tracks self-reported outages and social media posts. The site showed spikes in outages at Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile on Monday morning.
Verizon’s numbers, for example, showed that six of its nine markets with the biggest service problems were in Texas on Monday.
Austin appears on the list, along with San Antonio, Houston and several Metroplex cities. Verizon’s service outage reports in the Austin area started to increase at 8:30 am on Monday and peaked at 57 reports at 10:30 am, according to Verizon’s outage map at DownDetector.com, before dropping to 37 at 11:30 am.
Cases rose nationally on Sunday night around 8 pm, with 451 notifications, and rose again to around 400 at 11:15 am on Monday. The interruption maps are updated at the end of each hour.
Interruptions on the fixed Internet accounted for 41% of notifications at 11:30 am, according to DownDetector, with mobile phone services (31%) and mobile Internet (27%) right behind.
A Verizon representative said on Monday that the Verizon network is working well in the Austin area, despite disruptions across Texas.
“Our backup generators and redundant fiber rings for cell sites and switching centers are serving their intended purpose and keeping the vast majority of the network up and running and connected customers and first responders,” said a spokesman on Monday afternoon. . “For affected sites in Austin, including a group of sites south of the Colorado River along I-290, our partner engineers and suppliers are working quickly to restore service.”
On Monday, Spectrum tweeted that the winter storm is affecting their services as well: “Spectrum customers in Texas are experiencing service interruptions related to winter weather, causing commercial power outages and interrupted lines. As conditions permit, we will be working to restore services. patience . “
An AT&T representative on Monday said the storm’s ice and snow may be affecting service for some customers: “Technicians are deploying generators as needed and are working to restore service as quickly and safely as possible. conditions permit. Our network disaster recovery (NDR) team is on standby and prepared to deploy additional assets if necessary. “
The representative added that AT prepared for the storm “by completing the fuel generators, testing high-capacity backup batteries at cell sites and protecting physical facilities from flooding.”
A T-Mobile representative replied on Monday afternoon that the company “continues to monitor the situation closely. This afternoon, we are watching the progress of the restoration in the Austin market, with some sites coming back online. Our teams will continue to work 24 hours a day. to further restore markets affected by winter storm conditions. ”
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