AT&T Issues Service Credit for Users Affected by Power Outage

AT&T will refund a day’s communication service to customers affected by a power outage on Thursday.

Reuters reported on the 25th (local time) that AT&T will refund a day’s service to over 70,000 users affected by a power outage lasting more than 10 hours at the airline last Thursday.

AT&T’s 5G network service, which targeted approximately 290 million people nationwide in the United States, was restored late that day.

AT&T CEO John T. Stankey said in a letter to employees, “We believe it is right to virtually refund a day’s service to those customers as power outages can sometimes have a greater impact on some subscribers than the face value of the credit.”

He also added, “The billing will be applied automatically, and prepaid customers can choose an option if they were affected.”

According to Thomson Reuters, AT&T initially found that the outage occurred due to the application and execution of an incorrect process used during network expansion work and ruled out a cyber attack.

On the other hand, an AT&T spokesperson refused to mention how many customers would be billed or how much it would cost the company.

AT&T stated it will cooperate with middle market companies and enterprise customers to address customer concerns.

The Federal Communications Commission announced that it is investigating the incident on the day of the outage, and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is working with AT&T to determine the cause.