The CEO of AT&T expressed regret on Sunday for the extensive cellular outage that thousands of customers experienced and said that some accounts will be credited to make up for the disruption.
“We all know that our customers receive tremendous value and convenience for the nominal daily cost of our service, and outages sometimes have outsized impacts on some subscribers that may be greater than the face value of the credit. For that reason, I believe that crediting those customers for a full day of service is the right thing to do,” he continued. “Despite that impact on the business, I believe this approach is fully manageable while achieving the 2024 business objectives we have set for ourselves and our stated financial guidance.”
About three-quarters of the company’s customers, had to have their service restored when they woke up on Thursday morning unable to make calls or send messages.
The Dallas-based company’s network serves over 290 million people in the United States. In the tiny text at the bottom of their website, the firm promised that consumers would receive “one $5 credit per account” in two billing cycles.
The outage sparked worries that the business could have been the target of a cyberattack, but according to Stankey, the first investigation revealed that “the application and execution of an incorrect process used while working to expand our network” was the source of the problem.
“We recognize the frustration this outage has caused and know we let many of our customers down,” the business stated. “We’re also taking steps to prevent this from happening again in the future.”
AT&T promised to instantly credit affected customers’ bills with the average daily service cost.