That’s somewhat not up to them though. In dense urban areas you can get backhaul from the local telephone or cable company, and possibly other providers.

But once you get into suburban or rural areas you may only have one provider willing to lay fiber to the tower.

Absolutely agree. Especially where T-Mobile is wanting to push for First responders, they need to strengthen the network to be more bulletproof against attacks and disasters

They should seriously look into integrating Sprint backbone and keeping backup lines.

Rumor has it some T-Mobile lines may have run through the AT&T switching facility that was damaged in the explosion, I’d keep an eye on what both T-Mobile and AT&T are saying as an ETA for their TN subscribers to restore wireless service.

I will admit I’m shocked that there weren’t multiple redundancies in place in the event that this happened whether due to natural disaster or some psycho trying to stir up chaos. The destruction of one data center shouldn’t result in communications being completely brought down in the surrounding area.

Do you have HSPA or GSM service if you turn off LTE? I remember when T-Mobile’s IMS system went down a few months ago people were able to place calls this way, it’s worth a shot. 

Some carriers also open up access regardless of roaming agreements in the event of a disaster. See if you can register on one of the portable sites (COWs) that AT&T has deployed if there’s one nearby, or try another nearby network. Some may have the operator’s name or some 

Yeah, I've got no clue about Verizon's backhaul in the Chattanooga area where OP is. After this, I'm hoping T-Mobile can put that backhaul to use instead of relying on 3rd parties.

Didn’t Verizon buy out their LTEiRA Bluegrass in the area, that also ran through AT&T switching? The only one for sure who didn’t, was Sprint. And that’s probably because it goes back to when they owned United Telephone/Embarq ILEC in some of those areas. They own their own fiber backhaul in large swaths of the country.

That leaves only Verizon, unless there's a regional carrier in the area that doesn't also depend on AT&T for backhaul.

Unfortunately, cellular telephone service may be interrupted longer than you'd like.  If you can't leave the house without a telephone, you might want to switch to a carrier that's still working in your area.

Been without cell service since Xmas morning. Currently roaming on Sprint bands 25 and 26 according to Cellmapper. Can't make/receive calls unless I'm at home on wifi calling and SMS are hit or miss but take forever if they go thru. Anybody else in area having same problems? I know it may be related to the bombing in Nashville on Xmas but 3 days is getting long without being able to use my phone if I leave the house.

Still no service in Chattanooga, TN?