Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T users are experiencing big problems around the world
You've all heard of and possibly even suffered as a consequence of national wireless service outages before, but have you ever experienced an international outage? Unfortunately, that's exactly what's going on right now, and without trying to blow things out of proportion, it appears to be just as bad as it sounds.
Based on reports from dozens (maybe hundreds) of people across multiple Reddit threads, Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T customers currently located in places as diverse as Croatia, France, Italy, Poland, Thailand, Egypt, Colombia, China, and even Mexico and Canada are unable to make or receive voice calls, send text messages, and browse the web (unless connected to Wi-Fi).
At the time of this writing, many of these issues seem to already be around 24 hours old, and although US carriers are undoubtedly aware of the pains some customers might be going through on their travels, there's no fix in sight or even a lot of communication on the matter.
What most affected users are currently left with is confusion, anger, and hopefully, a simple way to access a local network in the country they're visiting. Even though it's incredibly rare to see all three of America's top mobile network operators experience such catastrophic roaming issues, getting a cheap, backup SIM (or eSIM) card for emergency situations like this is a good idea pretty much wherever you go.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed: