In an enlightening update from AT&T‘s CEO John Stankey, initial investigations into the massive service disruption on February 22nd have been disclosed. The cause, Stankey stated in a letter to the company’s employees, was tied to an incorrect process executed while network expansion efforts were in progress.
Describing it as a “challenging day,” for the telecom giant, Stankey emphasized the crucial issue wasn’t just the outage, but also the company’s response which served as a testament of resilience. “This is not our first network outage, and it won’t be our last – unfortunately, it’s the reality of our business. What matters most is how we react, adapt, and improve to deliver the service our customers need and expect,” Stankey explained emphatically.
In a gesture of goodwill, Stankey unveiled that AT&T would automatically apply account credits to the most impacted consumers and small businesses. Prepaid customers, he added, would also be offered suitable options if they were affected. Concurrently, AT&T is negotiating with its mid-market and enterprise customers to tend to any burning issues they may have harboured.
The disruption, according to Stankey’s letter, began during the early hours of February 22, leaving approximately 75% of customers without service access for some time afterward. A plan of action was quickly put into place with priority being given to restoring FirstNet service in order to honour the company’s responsibilities towards first responders.
The rest of the deprived customers had their service reconnected gradually throughout the morning, leading to a successful stabilization of the network by noon. He graciously acknowledged the employees’ efforts in promptly resolving the predicament: “Our frontline employees demonstrated expertise under pressure as our network teams took immediate action to restore service for our customers.”
