Bad connection: Solar flares didn’t cause AT&T’s cellphone outage

Sara Swann
·4 min read
Two solar flares occurred hours before a temporary outage disrupted AT&T cellphone customers’ service Feb. 22. But AT&T and experts said the two events are not connected.
Two solar flares occurred hours before a temporary outage disrupted AT&T cellphone customers’ service Feb. 22. But AT&T and experts said the two events are not connected.

Instagram posts

Statement: Solar flares caused AT&T’s cellphone outage.

After thousands of AT&T customers temporarily lost cellphone service Feb. 22, some social media users began speculating about what caused the outage.

A Feb. 22 Instagram reel’s narrator said, "A lot of people are blaming a solar flare that occurred last night and early this morning for this disruption because moments after it occurred is when the initial reports of outages started coming in."

The Instagram post’s caption read, "This Major Solar Flare and Cellular Service outage could just be a coincidence, but it is odd and interesting to think about."

Another Instagram post, also shared Feb. 22, also questioned whether a solar flare caused the outage.

These posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.

But solar flares weren’t to blame for this outage. Solar flares happen when magnetic fields on the sun reach a point of instability, releasing powerful bursts of electromagnetic radiation that can last minutes to hours, NASA said. NASA uses a scale, with B being the lowest and X being the strongest, to classify how strong solar flares are. Within each letter class, there’s another scale from 1 to 9, although X flares can go higher than 9.

Both of the recent solar flares were in the X-1 class, NASA said — so, relatively strong.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash on the lower right – on Feb. 9.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a solar flare – as seen in the bright flash on the lower right – on Feb. 9.

Depending on their intensity, solar flares can disrupt communication, radar and navigation systems on Earth, but it is "highly unlikely" these recent flares contributed to the widespread cellphone outages, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

Solar flares affect only the side of the Earth that is facing the sun. Because it was nighttime in the United States when the flares occurred, they couldn’t have affected radio communication there, Ryan French, a solar physicist at the National Solar Observatory, said in a YouTube video about the event.

The sun emitted two strong solar flares, with one peaking at 5:07 p.m. CST on Feb. 21 and one at 12:32 a.m. CST on Feb. 22, NASA and NOAA said.

AT&T customers in the U.S. began reporting service problems at about 2:30 a.m. CST on Feb. 22, according to Downdetector, which tracks cellular and internet outages. On that day, the site said the reported outages for AT&T peaked at almost 74,000. AT&T said wireless service was restored to all affected customers by 2:10 p.m. CST.

When we asked AT&T about what triggered the outage, a spokesperson referred us to a company webpage. It said technical issues that occurred during work to expand AT&T’s network caused the temporary service disruption.

AT&T also ruled out that a "cyberattack," or a computer network hack, caused the outage, although that claim also circulated social media. The company said there was no evidence a third party was involved in the outage or that customer data was compromised. AT&T is offering a $5 credit to affected customers.

During the outage, AT&T said customers could still make calls and send text messages using Wi-Fi. In place of cell service, some iPhone users saw an "SOS" symbol on their screens; Apple said in these instances, users can still make emergency calls.

Some people who use other cellphone carriers, such as Verizon and T-Mobile, also reported service snags Feb. 22. Verizon and T-Mobile both said their networks were operating normally that day and any problems were likely caused when trying to reach people on different networks.

We rate the claim that solar flares caused AT&T’s cellphone outage False.

Our sources

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: PolitiFact: Solar flares didn’t cause AT&T’s cellphone outage