Texas outage history: why backup matters here
Texas has had several large weather-driven events that cut power and, with it, internet service for many businesses. Wired internet equipment in the neighborhood needs power, so long power outages often mean internet outages too.
| Event | Date | Area | Impact (sourced) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Storm Uri | February 2021 | Statewide (ERCOT grid) | ERCOT ordered load shed. More than 4.5 million homes lost power, some for several days (UT Austin Energy Institute, as of Oct 2026) |
| Houston derecho | May 16, 2024 | Houston area | Peak of 858,271 CenterPoint customers with sustained outages (8:44 p.m., May 16). The storm period ran to May 24 (CenterPoint report to PUCT, as of Oct 2026) |
| Hurricane Beryl | July 8, 2024 (landfall near Matagorda) | Houston / Gulf Coast | 2.26 million CenterPoint customers affected. Restoration took 11 days in total, and about 78,000 were still out after 8 days (CenterPoint, July 10, 2024; CenterPoint after-action report, as of Oct 2026) |
| AT&T Mobility nationwide outage | February 22, 2024 | All 50 states, including Texas | A configuration error took down all AT&T Mobility voice and 5G data for more than 125 million devices. Full restoration took more than 12 hours (FCC report, as of Oct 2026). Lesson: a cellular backup on the same carrier as your phones has its own single point of failure. |
| Texas wired-ISP outages | TODO (needs verified source): Texas-specific wired ISP outage events from primary sources |
How we update this page: we add an event only with a primary or reputable news source and the date we checked it. Know of an outage we missed? Contact Evernet.
Power matters too: cellular and satellite backup only help if your router and POS have power. Add a UPS (battery backup) to your plan.