We’re getting some emails from concerned Cingular/AT&T wireless customers in D.C. and VA, who report they haven’t been able to make or receive phone calls since 6 p.m. EST (it’s now 10 p.m.). We wondered how that could be, and decided to see if we could find out from Cingular/AT&T (luckily, I have Sprint and am able to make calls). First stop was the company’s web site, to see if we could get a customer service rep or a media relations person on the phone at this late hour. No dice — the first number we tried, for the Northeast Media Relations director, went right to voicemail with a message indicating nothing amiss (in fact she was out of the office today). Then we called the main customer service number, only to be instructed that offices were closed, but that we could try the after hours service #. We had just jotted the number down approximately when the entire Cingular web site went down for maintenence.

The after hours number goes straight to a message that says the following:

We are experiencing an unusually high call volume, due to an issue in the Northeast Region. Customers are not able to make or receive calls at this time. Please be advised that we are working on this issue to get it restored as quickly as we possibly can.

So, you’ll just have to wait. But what could cause a 4+ hour outage over an entire region? We’re also hearing reports from customers of communications backbone giant Level 3 that their service went out completely at 6 p.m. as well — we can’t confirm it just yet, but it seems likely the two problems are related. Here’s what a DCist operative wrote in:

My neighbor has a huge pipe which uses Level 3.. he was in my apartment earlier borrowing my Verizon DSL since his net had been down since 6. He said he called tech support around 8pm and they were all panicky… something about their backbone being down from New York to someplace far south of here.

Yikes! Sounds major. If you’ve been trying unsuccessfully to reach someone with Cingular/AT&T tonight, now you know why. Here’s to hoping it’s fixed by start of business tomorrow morning, or we can imagine some pretty irate customers flipping their lids and driving the company’s stock down in the process.