T-Mobile has had some hiccups this week, as users started reporting issues yesterday (May 28) with the popular provider. However, it doesn't appear to be affecting the company's mobile signal, but its fiber home internet service. While that means fewer people are affected, it hasn't stopped more than 1,000 from hitting Downdetector to report issues.
The outage lasted multiple hours with no serious decline on Downdetector. T-Mobile finally sent us a response around 2:00 p.m. Pacific/5:00 p.m. Eastern. We were told at that point that the company had resolved the issue and most people should be back online, though it admitted that some people would still have issues as recovery progressed.
On the company's T-Mobile Help X account, there are a few users reaching out about the issue, but the company is just asking them to send a direct message, thus offering no public solution to the ongoing outage.
T-Mobile down — live updates on the fiber outage
T-Mobile Fiber has tons of reports, too
Some users have figured out that there's a T-Mobile Fiber page on Downdetector and are reporting the outage there, as well.
The number is lower, but for a relatively small internet provider available in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, and the Carolinas, it's a good number of reports.
And so it begins
Currently, T-Mobile's main Downdetector page has around 1,100 outage reports. Were this a mobile outage, that number would be substantially higher, but since it's home internet that's only available in 10 states, it's a relatively modest number of reports.
Lumos also getting reports
T-Mobile bought out Lumos home internet services in a lot of markets, so it's also seeing a sudden spike in reports, which we have to assume is connected to the ongoing T-Mobile Fiber outage.
Long hold times
As is often the case with outages, hold times have become extremely long on the phone. One X user said they waited more than an hour to speak to someone at T-Mobile, only to be given the standard "we're working on it" speech. According to someone who managed to get through, "it’s a widespread outage with no resolution time as of yet," so we'll have to keep waiting to find out anything new.
The first downturn
We're seeing a small downturn in the number of reports on Downdetector for both T-Mobile and T-Mobile Fiber. Does that mean the outage is coming to an end or are people just not reporting problems as much since it's been happening on and off for a while. Time will tell.
T-Mobile is trying
You have to hand it to T-Mobile; the company is trying to respond to users on X, which is hopefully alleviating some of the strain of people trying to get through on the phone.
Unfortunately, the company is hopping into direct messages with the customers, so we have no way to know what is coming from initial reach-outs.
Up for some, still down for others
Looking through the Downdetector comments, some T-Mobile Fiber customers are saying that things are back and some are saying it's still down for them. Presumably, whatever fix T-Mobile is bringing forward is rolling out gradually, so the users still dealing with problems might just need to be patient.
The fact that it's back for some is a good sign, though!
Reports dropping fast
The reports for T-Mobile and T-Mobile Fiber are on a major downswing, which is great for users struggling to enjoy their home internet.
Holding pattern
At this point, it seems like we're just in a holding pattern waiting for the people who are still experiencing outages to get it fixed.
Hopefully it's all resolved soon so everyone can get back to their normal days!
Reader spoke to T-Mobile
A reader reached out via email and told me that they "just got done with T-Mobile customer care chat and were quoted 4-6 hours for restoration, where I am in North Atlanta suburbs."
Obviously, that timeframe could vary for different regions, but if you're in one of the areas still dealing with problems, just know that as of around 10:30 a.m. ET, that's the approximate time frame.
Downdetector staying steady
Unfortunately, there's not much new to report. Downdetector is hanging in the 300 range still and based on claims of 4-6 hours for a full return, I don't expect much to shift over the next hour or so.
T-Mobile Help isn't much help
Unfortunately, T-Mobile Help on X is still just directing people to DM without offering any public-facing updates on the downtime.
'Up and running where I am'
According to the same reader who messaged us, they said that it "looks like that 4-hour estimate was close and I know they always under-promise and over-deliver on those times…like any good restaurant does with their wait times."
It's not fully up and running yet, though
Despite anecdotal evidence from our readers and comments on Downdetector, there are still people without internet access, as reports haven't fully subsided. Currently, T-Mobile has 298 reports, and T-Mobile Fiber has 190, both indicating that some areas still don't have internet service.
It's back down in Georgia
We've received another update from a reader in Georgia that the fix didn't last long. They said the internet "only stayed on for about 23 minutes and has been down for almost another hour now ."
Clearly, there's still something not quite right with T-Mobile Fiber.
Down in Virginia
A reader let us know that their service in Virginia is out. Though it could be more of a systemic problem for them.
"Our internet is very slow because our T-Mobile fiber has not worked in over a week. So we are using T-Mobile home internet as a backup and are over our data limit. When will the T-Mobile fiber system be working again? We are in Norfolk, Virginia."
No acknowledgement from T-Mobile
We are several hours into the T-Mobile Fiber outage with claims form some people saying that it's lasted more than 11 hours for them.
Tom's Guide has reached out to T-Mobile about the outage but the company has not responded.
Meanwhile, the support account on Twitter is getting hit with people complaining about the outage; however, from what I've seen, the support staff there only pushes users to DMs or tells them they need to speak to the Fiber team.
Elsewhere, I don't see any announcements from T-Mobile.
T-Mobile responds!
A T-Mobile spokesperson reached out to Tom's Guide with this statement:
"We’re aware of an issue that impacted some T-Fiber customers earlier today. Service has since been restored for many of the affected customers, and restoration efforts are ongoing.
T-Fiber teams are continuing to work as quickly as possible to fully restore service soon, and we apologize for the inconvenience."
No clear timeline
A reader commented that their email went down around 2:00 am Eastern today. It took until 11:53 am for the company to notify them, they said.
However, they said that T-mobile said "an email forth coming to notify of restoration but provides no timeframe."
From what I can tell, recovery is ongoing which means some people may still lack connections.
Reader response
Reader says their 5G home internet is working while the fiber is down.
"T-Fiber, specifically, is what’s affected. My T-mobile 5G home internet is working as a backup while fiber is down."
It just drags on
Normally by now on Downdetector we would have seen reports dry up especially once a fix was initiated by the relevant company.
However today, the T-Mobile outage continues to drag on sitting around 300 reports since 2 a.m. Eastern.
It's honestly not clear when this will settle for people.
T-Mobile still down for some
I logged off for the day at 4 p.m. ET, assuming everything would be back to normal before I went to bed. Just for kicks, I decided to check Downdetector to see what was happening, and to my utter shock, there are still 288 reports of people having problems with T-Mobile's fiber internet.
Despite T-Mobile's best efforts (including the response we posted earlier, which claimed service was "restored for many of the affected customers"), things still seem broken for at least some of T-Mobile Fiber users. If you're among them, at least you know the company is aware of the issue and is trying its best to fix it.
Reports seem to have stabilized, but not gone away
Despite T-Mobile assuring us yesterday that service has been restored following the problems, reports on DownDetector continue to trickle through. Reports are just under 200 at the time of writing (about 4 a.m. ET), which could mean that lingering issues continue into a second day if users wake up and find their home internet still affected. If that's you, let us know in the comments box below.
A reminder that T-Mobile gave us an official statement on the outage yesterday:
"We’re aware of an issue that impacted some T-Fiber customers earlier today. Service has since been restored for many of the affected customers, and restoration efforts are ongoing.
T-Fiber teams are continuing to work as quickly as possible to fully restore service soon, and we apologize for the inconvenience."
On the rise again?
We saw a sharp drop in reports overnight, down to as low as 40, but that could be largely because almost everyone in the impacted areas was asleep. Now that the eastern portion of the U.S. is waking up, reports have jumped back to around 240, indicating that some T-Mobile Fiber users are waking up to find their internet still broken.
We'll keep this blog updated as we learn more. Hopefully, things get sorted this morning so everyone can get back to normal.
Fiber still chugging along
There's still some red showing on the T-Mobile Fiber Downdetector page. It's better and the main T-Mobile page is yellow now, but there does appear to be a few straggler outages happening out there.
