Thousands across U.S. affected by sudden cell phone outage, including Baton Rouge's emergency services
Related Story
BATON ROUGE - Around 3 a.m. Thursday morning, S.O.S. mode appeared on tens of thousands of cell phones across the country, leaving many searching for answers.
East Baton Rouge EMS released a statement saying in case of an emergency, call 911 from a landline via WI-FI or text 911.
AT&T customers were said to have been affected the most. LSU students reported having problems accessing the school's portal.
With so much going on, those issues led to an influx of calls to the 911 call center.
"A lot of people's phones are in what's called S.O.S mode, which is an emergency default," Brad Harris of East Baton Rouge EMS said. "So if your phone does not have service, you are still able to contact emergency services."
EMS said they've received numerous calls from people asking to be transferred to another line or if EMS can call someone for them. EMS is already heavily utilized regularly, meaning they cannot help with non-emergencies.
They said those calls tie up the line even more and add stress to the situation.
While the cause of the outage is still unknown, AT&T has verified all cell service is back and everything should be working again.