AT&T Mobility’s network pushed over the EDGE

Four days after launching the data-centric Apple Inc. iPhone, AT&T Mobility struggled with a regional crash of its EDGE network for several hours on Monday-but the carrier said the problem was with a data center in Texas, and had nothing to do with the influx of new iPhone customers utilizing the carrier’s data network.
“It was unrelated to the iPhone,” said AT&T Mobility spokesman Mark Siegel.
Siegel categorized the problem as a “small disruption in data service that affected some places in the Midwest and West,” adding that it was “impossible to say” how many customers experienced data service problems. Voice service, Research In Motion Ltd. Blackberry service and text messaging were not affected, Siegel said.
Users in California, Texas, Illinois, Washington, Arizona and Minnesota were among those checking in with each other on various Internet forums to see who had coverage and who didn’t. Siegel said the problem began early yesterday afternoon and was resolved by 7 p.m., and once the issue was identified, AT&T Mobility was able to re-route data traffic so that “the effect was pretty minimal.”