AT&T will credit customers a full day of service for the carrier’s greater than 10-hour outage on Thursday that affected greater than 70,000 users, saying it was the “right thing to do.”
“I feel this approach is fully manageable while achieving the 2024 business objectives we now have set for ourselves and our stated financial guidance,” CEO John Stankey told employees in a letter.
Service was restored late on Thursday on AT&T’s 5G network which covers around 290 million people across the US.
An initial review found the outage was attributable to the applying and execution of an incorrect process used while working to expand the network, the corporate said, ruling out a cyberattack.
![A pedestrian looking at a cell phone outside an AT&T retail store during an investigation into outages in Washington, USA - 22 Feb 2024.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/02/fbi-conducting-investigations-outages-ts-77024368.jpg?w=1024)
“Outages sometimes have outsized impacts on some subscribers which may be greater than the face value of the credit,” Stankey said. “For that reason, I feel that crediting those customers for essentially a full day of service is the appropriate thing to do.”
The credit will probably be applied routinely, while prepaid customers can have options available in the event that they were affected, he added.
An AT&T spokesperson on Sunday declined to say what number of customers would get the billing credit or how much it could cost the corporate.
AT&T said it’s going to work with Mid-Market and Enterprise customers to address their concerns.
The Federal Communications Commission said on Thursday it was investigating the incident.
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is working with AT&T to understand the cause.