#FCC demands answers after nationwide T-Mobile outage

Federal regulators have vowed to get to the bottom of a widespread T-Mobile network outage that left customers across the country with no cell service.

Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai on Monday tweeted that the FCC would be “launching an investigation.”

“The T-Mobile network outage is unacceptable,” Pai wrote. “We’re demanding answers – and so are American consumers.”

The outage began at noon on Monday and lasted roughly 12 hours.  Neville Ray, president of technology at T-Mobile, said on Twitter Monday that engineers had been working to resolve a voice and data issue.

He said later that data services were now available and some calls were completing. “Alternate services like WhatsApp, Signal, iMessage, Facetime etc. are available,” he added.

The announcement of the probe arrived as CNBC reported that Japanese conglomerate SoftBank was looking to sell two-thirds of its stake in the carrier, worth as much as $20 billion.

In 2018, Pai backed the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint Corp saying it would lead to improved 5G coverage in the United States and would bring much faster mobile broadband to rural Americans.

T-Mobile on April 1 officially completed its $23 billion merger with Sprint, solidifying its position as the No.3 wireless providers in the United States.

With Post wires