17 Reasons Why Western New Yorkers Think The Phones Are Down

If your parents have ever told you “Back in my day, we didn’t have phones,” now we can guess what life may have been like then. 

Since 4 AM on Thursday, many people in Western New York and across the country have been experiencing phone service issues, with AT&T customers being the most impacted by the outage. Other providers, including T-Mobile and Verizon, are also experiencing service issues at this time. 

For those who grew up in the ‘80s, you may not be as concerned as the younger generations who were raised on technology, but the scariest thing about the outage, if you ask me, is not the limited ability to text or call your family or friends – but many people are unable to call 911 at this time if they are experiencing an emergency. 

The Town of Hamburg Emergency Services shared on Facebook that one of the best alternatives at this time is to use a landline phone until issues are resolved. However, many people do not have access to a landline anymore. In fact, 73% of homes only use cell phones as a means of contact.  

That means that roughly a quarter of the United States population still have a landline in their house, according to the Washington Post. To put that into a perspective, an estimated 600,000+ calls placed to 911 per day, equating to 417 calls to the police per minute.

Think about how many people have been unable to call since 4 AM on Thursday. 

People want answers, understandably so. How does a nationwide outage happen for this long?

We asked our Facebook page at 106.5 WYRK to give us some suggested answers in the meantime, just to see if everyone naturally assumes the worst. 

THE FOLLOWING ANSWERS ARE INCORRECT AND ARE NOT PROVEN TO HAVE ANY TRUTH BEHIND THEM. THIS IS A GENERAL THREAD OF ANSWERS FROM FACEBOOK.