Massive CenturyLink Outage is Nationwide on December 27 2018

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Millions of people across the U.S. woke up to a nationwide, coast-to-coast CenturyLink outage. Hardest hit are New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, and Washington state, however Centurylink is down in other states including California, Oregon, and the Northeast.

Said CenturyLink, this morning, in a statement to the press, “Our network is experiencing a disruption affecting customer services. We understand some customers are currently unable to generate tickets through the CenturyLink help portal. We know how important these services are to our customers and we are working to restore services as quickly as possible.”

Map of CenturyLink Internet Outage 12/27/18

centurylink outage nationwide
Credit: DownDetector.com

According to EastIdahoNews, their users started reporting issues as early as 1:00 a.m. Central Time.

Even more troublesome is that many emergency services now rely on VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) so when a service like CenturyLink or Comcast goes down, emergency services are affected. (While this is not the time for a rant about how all emergency services should have a failover POTS (plain old telephone system) set-up…VoIP by both CenturyLink and Comcast are notoriously unstable…we’re just sayin’…)

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Says WDIO, out of Minnesota, “St. Louis County authorities are reported a Nationwide CenturyLink outage Thursday morning, which is affecting 911 emergency call services in different northland counties. The sheriff’s office says, for St. Louis County, land lines are being affected “sporadically.” They say all major cell phone companies appear to be working as they should. Authorities recommend to use a cell phone for those who need to call 911. If a cell phone is not available, use another type of phone to call 218-625-3581.”

(Remember when the advice used to be to not use a cell phone to call 911?)

While CenturyLink’s Twitter account has been silent about the issues, lots of Twitter users have been tweeting about it, and they are not happy. Those who have tried to call CenturyLink have been put on hold with an expected hold time of as many as “247 minutes”, and those who have managed to get through to a CenturyLink rep have been told that they can expect service to be down for as much as 2 days!

centurylink outage twitter

[UPDATE: CenturyLink finally tweeted a statement about the outage: “Our network is experiencing a disruption affecting customer services. We understand some customers are currently unable to generate tickets through the CTL help portal. We know how important services are to our customers and are working to restore services as quickly as possible.” Pretty much exactly the statement that they released to the press.]

If you are being affected or were affected by this outage, please let us know where in the world you are in a comment – we’ll keep a running list for folks.

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11 thoughts on “Massive CenturyLink Outage is Nationwide on December 27 2018

  1. “All circuits are busy” -Southwest Missouri.
    Can get through to landline numbers by using my cel that I can’t reach with a landline.
    Don’t know about email but so far internet access is OK

  2. Still out in Astoria, Oregon. Yesterday, when I tried to talk to a live person. I was told that wait time was 647 minutes.

  3. Northeast Ohio. 12-27-17 century link went out around 4:30 am.
    Afternoon of 12-27, attempted using century link app, which i swear was advertised as saying you could get info on outages, I never figured that out, but was trying to use support chat, was advised 745 minutes until csr available to respond.
    Checked at 12-28-2018 3:30 am still out. Awoke again 5:30 am, on.

  4. Here in Vancouver, Wa, Clark County. It also seems to be effecting Portland, Or as well. Hopefully everything will remain quiet around here.

  5. We have intermittent service with CenturyLink in Vancouver, WA. However they won’t release our home phone number for porting (we had planned to switch service previously, as CL’s routers are outdated and they do a poor job refurbishing).

    Time for internet service to be organized like a utility service. Past time.

  6. 40 miles nw of Columbus, Ohio and our normally reliable CenturyLink DSL service is still out at 8:30pm EST, Thursday, December 27, 2018. Thus far, given the duration and expansiveness (NATIONWIDE) this is not a small thing and should have the full force of the FCC investigating immediately.

  7. When you call our business the phone message states our phone is disconnected or out of order. This sucks for a business. I can get through if I call several times. This is hurt full and I think Centurylink is liable for loss of business for this. Their message should only state an issue going on not stating the number has been disconnected &/or an issue going on. WTF

  8. No CL service in Northern New Mexico since around 1:00 AM. Good thing my phone service isn’t through CL. Still have internet on my phone.

  9. It appears CL is trying to severely downplay this outage. “We understand some customers are currently unable to generate tickets through the CenturyLink help portal.” That sounds a lot better than the entire country is without service, and we did not say anything about it for ten hours.”

    Out of power in NW Ohio..

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