AT&T subscribers affected by the February 22 service outage will receive a $5 credit. According to AT&T CEO John T. Stankey, the incident was caused by a technical issue as the carrier attempted to expand its network.

The outage began at around 3:30 a.m. local time and lasted for several hours. Some of the affected cities included Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York, according to Downdetector.com, a website that tracks internet outage reports.

At its peak, the site received about 70,000 reports of AT&T outages. Service was fully restored after about seven hours.

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AT&T automatically added $5 credit to customer accounts for inconveniences encountered during the February 22 network outage. (Photo: Shutterstock)

CEO John T. Stankey apologized for the disappointment to many customers in a letter sent on February 25. In an effort to make amends, AT&T will issue a $5 credit to users' AT&T Wireless accounts for the inconvenience.

AT&T also said it is "working closely" with mid-market and enterprise customers to address their concerns. It's unclear how much the credits will amount to to offset lost revenue.

In a statement, AT&T stressed that the network outage was not caused by a cyber attack. According to the initial assessment, the cause was due to the application and implementation of an incorrect procedure while expanding the network.

Large-scale outages as severe as AT&T’s are not common in the United States. In 2021, T-Mobile paid about $19.5 million to settle an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) after a 12-hour, 13-minute service interruption in June 2020.

It resulted in network congestion on T-Mobile's 2G, 3G, and 4G networks, causing more than 23,000 911 calls to go through. In addition, the carrier must implement a compliance plan with new commitments to improve 911 notifications and provide status updates within two hours of the initial notification.

(According to NYT, ABC News)