Cell service along the East Coast was spotty for about a half hour following a Virginia-based earthquake that was felt as far away as New England.
There were no reports of downed cell towers or wires, but mobile providers said the fact that millions of people tried to make cell phone calls at the same time overwhelmed cellular relay stations.
Verizon Wireless reported network congestion for some customers in the Eastern U.S. for about 20 minutes following the earthquake, which hit just before 2 p.m. ET. The quake measured at 5.9 on the Richter scale.
"We are seeing no reports of damage to our wireless network," said Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) spokesman Jeff Nelson. "Everything returned to normal quickly once the tremors ended. We'll continue to monitor the network."
Nelson said the mobile company's infrastructure was built to withstand earthquakes of such a magnitude.
Sprint (S, Fortune 500) told customers via Twitter that the provider is experiencing intermittent delays connecting phone calls following the earth quake, citing a "temporary mass calling event."
AT&T (T, Fortune 500) said it continued to investigate the earthquake's impact, but thousands of people took to Twitter, saying that their service was disrupted as well.
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