AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile point finger at 'third-party' for roaming outage

In the midst of peak summer travel, US mobile phone customers of AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon are struggling to connect due to an international roaming outage. The three service providers explained that a third-party roaming vendor is the common denominator for outages.

Some travelers "reported being unable to make phone calls, send texts or use online services without Wi-Fi for as long as 24 hours," said The New York Times.

T-Mobile said it was one of several providers affected by a "third-party vendor's issue" impacting international roaming services, according to CNN. Verizon told the outlet that nearly 30% of customer calls and data connections overseas aren't going through.

That third party appears to be US-based roaming aggregator Syniverse. "Since the onset of these issues, Syniverse has been working closely with our network partners to restore full service," Syniverse told CNN in a statement. "We understand the inconvenience this has caused and appreciate your patience as we navigate this challenge."

Syniverse supports several roaming services, including 5G roaming and messaging, 3G-to-VoLTE roaming, and roaming support for private wireless and IoT. However, Syniverse has remained relatively quiet on social media. The company's last post to X was on June 26, and it was unrelated to the outage.

"@Syniverse how come there are no updates about your services going down throughout Europe with an ETA on when they will be back up," asked one user on X after suggesting that Verizon blamed the company for not allowing customers to access data while roaming.

Syniverse has not yet responded to Light Reading's request for comment.

Meanwhile, AT&T said it's working with its roaming partners to fix the issue.

"The AT&T network is operating normally," AT&T told Light Reading in an emailed statement. "Some customers traveling internationally may be experiencing service disruptions due to an issue outside the AT&T network.  We're working with one of our roaming connectivity providers to resolve the issue."

Verizon echoed that it's also collaborating with local providers to address the outage.

In May, AT&T customers in Virginia and North Carolina experienced service outages – 57% of customer reports were related to mobile phones. In February, a much more widespread outage impacted 75,000 AT&T customers in markets including Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Atlanta.