Q: app store issues - iphone

I work for tech support for wireless carrier - i along with my co-workers have gotten many calls in the past 3 days about apple store not working. Everythig works on the phone- data/voice services - but when accessing apple store they all get the same error -  a blank page with "cannot connect to apple store" - have tried different things (such as signing out and back in of itunes, making sure software is up to date, making sure connection to wifi or cellular data is present etc...) to resolve the issue including this help doc https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201400   bu still issue persists - just wondering whats going on .....???