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LEWISTOWN - A cell tower outage in the Lewistown area disrupted wireless service Thursday in parts of Mifflin County, including Granville and Derry Township.
An independent outage tracker at attoutage.app reported one active AT&T wireless outage in Pennsylvania, affecting Granville and Derry Township. The site says it draws its information from AT&T's published outage feeds, although it is not operated by or affiliated with the company.
When checked shortly after noon Thursday, the Pennsylvania page showed no other active AT&T wireless outages in the state. It did not identify Centre County as an affected area. The full geographic reach remained unclear.
An AT&T customer service representative confirmed the problem involved a cell tower and said repairs might not be completed until Friday afternoon. The representative did not provide a cause, say exactly when the outage began or estimate how many customers had lost service.
Some T-Mobile and Verizon customers also reported losing service on social media. No one could independently confirm whether those disruptions were related to the same outage.
It was not immediately clear whether customers throughout Granville and Derry Township had lost all wireless service or whether the disruption was limited to certain locations and devices. Cellular outages can affect calling, text messaging and mobile data, although the combination of services lost depends on the equipment and network problem involved.
Mifflin County Director of Public Safety Phil Lucas and other employees at the county Public Safety Office could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon. As a result, any effect on 911 calls, emergency dispatching or communications used by police, fire and emergency medical personnel could not be confirmed.
AT&T advises customers experiencing a cellular outage to connect their phones to a wireless internet network and activate Wi-Fi Calling. The feature allows supported phones to make calls and send text messages through an internet connection when a cellular signal is limited or unavailable.
Wi-Fi Calling requires a stable internet connection. AT&T warns that a weak or crowded wireless network can result in poor-quality or dropped calls. Instructions for activating the feature vary by phone and are available through the device's settings and AT&T's online support pages.
Customers can also check AT&T's outage portal by entering a service address or signing into their accounts. Account-specific information may provide a restoration estimate that is not available on AT&T's public pages.
The AT&T representative's Friday afternoon estimate remained subject to change. No official explanation for the outage had been released by Thursday afternoon.