Historic winter storm hits Texas, millions without power and internet

I'm sure you've heard of the raging winter storms across many states in the US, with Texas hit very hard with a historic winter cold front -- which has seen millions of Americans without power, cell phone and internet services.

T-Mobile president of technology Neville Ray tweeted: "We're experiencing network issues following severe weather in several areas of the country and especially across Texas. Our teams are working hard to restore service. Stay tuned, stay safe and thank you for your patience".

Jason Furtado, a professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma explained the storm: "We're living through a really historic event going on right now". The storm has plunged millions of Americans into darkness in more ways than one, with state officials saying that the demand for power mixed with the freezing conditions has knocked down power stations as Texas' systems are overloaded.

Dan Woodfin, senior director of system operations at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said: "This weather event, it's really unprecedented. We all living here know that. This event was well beyond the design parameters for a typical, or even an extreme, Texas winter that you would normally plan for. And so that is really the result that we're seeing".

A few hours later Ray tweeted that the company was "seeing network improvements", and then provided a link to a page where there are live updates to the unfolding events caused by the storm. You can check that website out here.

AT&T is also on Twitter explaining that their "team is already working toward a resolution, bear with us".

Verizon has spoken with The Verge, saying: "Verizon's network is performing well as winter storms make their way across the country with limited impact to our network operations", while "in a few pockets of the country, power outages have impacted the fiber we use to provide connectivity from each cell site to our switching facilities. Restoration crews have already begun work to restore power to those fiber assets".