FirstNet suffers data-service outage in southeast U.S.

Data service for some FirstNet users was interrupted Thursday morning, but the issue was resolved, according to FirstNet contractor AT&T, which indicated that it is investigating the cause of the outage.

“Early this morning, data service was affected for some customers in the Southeast region,” according to an AT&T statement provided to IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “We worked quickly to resolve the issue, and service is currently running normally. Voice service was not impacted.

“The issue was isolated to a specific data center, and we are investigating what happened to help prevent this from occurring in the future. We take our commitment to FirstNet subscribers and the mission seriously and apologize for any disruption this event caused. We understand we must earn your trust every day.”

A FirstNet Authority spokesperson acknowledged that the FirstNet Authority was aware of the outage and that the problem was resolved.

Industry sources said that they received reports that the outage impacted users in at least two states for multiple hours, but IWCE’s Urgent Communications was not able to confirm these reports by speaking with affected FirstNet users. AT&T did not provide any details in response to inquiries from IWCE’s Urgent Communications that would confirm or refute these reports.