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What could cause all major cell phone providers to experience outages that began at the same time in the same day? A solar flare seems unlikely, since WiFi doe
by blhack 6y ago
What could cause all major cell phone providers to experience outages that began at the same time in the same day?
A solar flare seems unlikely, since WiFi does not seem to be effected (for me at least).
Routing issue maybe?
One possibility: it’s all just T-Mobile, but people are bad at reporting. For instance: if a non technical person tries to call a t-mobile number from their Verizon phone, and experiences an “outage”, they may report this as a problem with their own phone rather than understanding that it was on the receiving end (and knowing to try to call other carriers).
This could also explain problems with Facebook messenger (if the T-Mobile outage is effecting data). It’s not a problem with messenger etc. it’s just that messenger is the service that some T-Mobile customers are trying to use and having it not work. So they report it as a problem with the black box they know as their phone.
That or we are getting hacked. And if that’s the case then buckle in and charge up your ham radios.
- adrianpike 6y agoEasy: someone fat-fingered SS7 the same way someone fat-fingered BGP. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_System_No._7 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_System_No._7 https://blog.cloudflare.com/how-verizon-and-a-bgp-optimizer-knocked-large-parts-of-the-internet-offline-today/ https://blog.cloudflare.com/how-verizon-and-a-bgp-optimizer-...
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- bogomipz 6y agoNo it's not the same at all. A carrier's SS7 configuration does not get propagated out to other carriers.
- jcrawfordor 6y agoQuite possible though is a significant disruption of one of the many services like LNP which are implemented via SS7 and shared by all carriers - there is indeed a complex set of inter-dependencies between carriers that are all somewhat generically referred to as part of the SS7 system, several of which are required to successfully set up a call or deliver a text message.
- bogomipz 6y agoAll the major carriers maintain their own local LNP database. The only updates that would be distributed via a third party(NPAC) would be recently ported land lines.
- numpad0 6y agoWhat about number transfers? Some MNP implementation rely on the original Home Subscriber Server the number was issued in or something, so there could be paths between core networks among major carriers. e: already addressed, sorry
- gwright 6y agoThis comment tickled something in my memory: All Circuits are Busy Now: The 1990 AT&T Long Distance Network Collapse http://users.csc.calpoly.edu/~jdalbey/SWE/Papers/att_collapse http://users.csc.calpoly.edu/~jdalbey/SWE/Papers/att_collaps...
- ortusdux 6y agoReports of a DDoS in progress: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23533350 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23533350
- Shank 6y agoThere is no proof of a denial of service attack. Attack maps like the one you’ve linked to sinkhole traffic from botnets to known honeypots. The only way a DDoS can be identified is if you’re sitting on the transit links themselves or you have insight into the very private networks that the carriers have. Attack maps do not have this.
- vokep 6y agoSo attack maps are pretty much just useless PR gags? Thats what I assumed but wasn't sure if I was correct.
- nmjohn 6y agoThey are 100% useless PR gags
- kossTKR 6y ago"Wow look the US is getting attacked by everyone" - "lets make everyone pay for a black budget 5 trillion dollars cyber defence project". Same old military industrial complex scheme with theater pretexts.
- kjs3 6y agoUseless? Not always...if they're well done PR they collect eyeballs. But yeah, all PR gags.
- SN76477 6y agoI have already seen infowarriors blaming Antifa. Could be anything I guess.
- atlgator 6y agoBecause they all run off a backbone operated by Level 3 Communications...
- posguy 6y agoNo, T-Mobile forces everything through Inteliquent (aka Onvoy/Vitelity) as of a few years ago. They all likely share the same STIR/SHAKEN vendor, and Comcast is affected too (Comcast has working STIR/SHAKEN that interacts properly with T-Mobile and Verizon). Wonder if their shared STIR/SHAKEN vendor broke these calls?
- bori5 6y agoInteresting had to search what stir/shaken was. Not obvious to the layperson.
- Throwaway641a 6y agoThe cynic in me: "system upgrades" related to Barr's memo a few weeks back designating Antifa a domestic terror group. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-william-p-barrs-statement-riots-and-domestic-terrorism https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-william-p-ba...
- gamblor956 6y agoIt's not TMobile. Messenger had issues too, even when accessed through the website.
- zhte415 6y agoMessenger? Bloomberg? MSN? BlackBerry? ICQ?
- burnte 6y agoThese days it usually means Facebook Messenger. FYI, not snarky. :)
- systematical 6y agoYes Facebook messenger did have issues as far as I could tell. I definitely refer to it as FB Messenger, not Messenger. It doesn't deserve the latter.
- zhte415 6y agoAm not hip with that then. Deleted Facebook years ago.
- StanislavPetrov 6y agoCould be something with 4g. My 3g flip phone is working fine (AT&T subscription plan - not prepaid). I can even receive calls from people on T-mobile who aren't able to call each other or other people (although they don't receive my incoming calls). Another bonus for avoiding the spy phone.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- pdxandi 6y agoThe article seems ti suggests calls and texts to T-Mobile are failing so customers from other providers are likely reporting issues unaware of the source.
- pdxandi 6y ago*On mobile. Please excuse the typos.
- arkades 6y agoOther services are reporting failure to connect when trying to reach T-Mobile. I was just trying to call a coworker w/ T-Mobile, and the error message I received was "Verizon cannot complete this call." (I'm on VZ)
- choward 6y agoNSA updating their taps?
- 2trill2spill 6y agoTaps are passive they wouldn't effect traffic.
- ISL 6y agoUnless they are people-in-the-middle.
- joecool1029 6y agoSo many comments and noooobody knows how to search. I spotted it a few hours back, zayo fiber cut: https://tranzact.zayo.com/#!/networkStatus https://tranzact.zayo.com/#!/networkStatus Edit: Lol at all this nonsense 'Anonymous DDOS', BGP fat-fingering, NSA speculation. I got karma to burn from those butthurt at me being right about the fiber cut. Look at the timestamp and region! Look at this: https://bgp.he.net/AS393494#_graph4 https://bgp.he.net/AS393494#_graph4 Who you think AS6461 is? EDIT2: Someone else might have been partially right about merger upgrades being a factor, perhaps removed some redundancy. Before I found the Zayo cut I saw that Crown Castle was looking weird overnight (they are #1 or #2 largest cell tower company with their own acquired fiber network, Lightower): https://map.internetintel.oracle.com/?root=traffic&country=US https://map.internetintel.oracle.com/?root=traffic&country=U...
- digitaltrees 6y agoI have att, my wife has Verizon. Can’t call each other.
- badrabbit 6y agoI thought it was ddos? If not, I say it's china retalieting for huawei
- Good_Karma 6y agoHow about too many IMSI catchers being deployed at the same time ? Like basically ~ all of them at the same time right ? Couldn't that cause some unforeseen disturbances ?
- Lammy 6y agoThere was a major cross-carrier outage in 2015 too https://money.cnn.com/2015/08/05/technology/cell-phone-outage/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2015/08/05/technology/cell-phone-outag...