With AT&T phone outage, don't call 911 to test service, Chicago emergency officials warn
UPDATE: Some AT&T customers in Chicago had service restored around 11:30 a.m.
CHICAGO (CBS) -- With a significant outage hitting AT&T customers, emergency officials have a warning: Don't call 911 to test if cellular service is working.
Chicago's Office of Emergency Management said its operations center is receiving 911 calls and needs its operators to be available to handle legitimate calls.
What does SOS mean?
Phone users who see SOS where the bars normally appear indicates that service is unavailable. To make an emergency call on an iPhone, according to Apple:
Press and hold the side button and one of the volume buttons until the Emergency SOS slider appears.
Drag the Emergency Call slider to call emergency services.
On an Android phone, according to Google:
- On your phone, press the power button 5 times or more.
- Depending on your settings, touch and hold inside the red circle for 3 seconds or wait for the automatic countdown to start the emergency call.
Don't call 911 as a test
"Please do not call 911 to simply test your service," Chicago's emergency office said on X, formerly Twitter. "If you are an AT&T customer and unable to get through to 911, try calling from a landline or try to get ahold of a friend or family member who is a customer of a different carrier and ask them to call 911 on your behalf."
Illinois State Police said its 911 center was working and had the same message: "Please do not call 911 unnecessarily to test if the system is working."
Suburban police had similar messages, asking residents to find a landline, borrow a working phone, or find a wireless connection to make an emergency call.
Where are outages highest?
AT&T said it was trying to fix the outage and asked customers to enable Wi-Fi calling on their devices.
Outages were highest in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Louisville, Miami, and San Antonio, according to Downdetector, which tracks tech outages.
