Incident Summary:
On November 5th, a small percentage of text messages (estimated at less than 1%) encountered delays in delivery due to an unusually high message volume affecting upstream carriers (such as Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T). This surge in volume, primarily related to election activity, caused a temporary backlog within the carriers' networks, leading to messages being delayed beyond their scheduled delivery times. We apologize for any inconvenience caused and are working closely with our provider and the carriers to address the situation.
Cause:
The delay was due to an exceptionally high volume of SMS/MMS traffic impacting the networks of major carriers. This industry-wide backlog created a temporary delay for a specific batch of messages. Our provider has confirmed that this was an isolated incident due to unique conditions, with no error involved on their end or ours.
Impact:
This delay may have affected the timeliness of some urgent or time-sensitive messages.
Resolution:
We have engaged with our provider’s engineering team to discuss further measures for maintaining message flow during peak periods. The provider and carriers are actively monitoring the situation to prevent future delays, and we are exploring additional options to enhance message delivery reliability during high-volume events.
Update:
Our provider has reassured us that the delay was an unusual event resulting from extreme external conditions and is not anticipated to reoccur.
Next Steps:
- Monitoring: Ongoing monitoring of message delivery to ensure stability.
- Reliability Enhancements: Evaluating further measures to improve performance during potential high-volume events.
- User Updates: We will keep users informed if additional actions or guidance become necessary.