Feb 25, 2024,01:16pm EST
In a statement issued on Friday night, AT&T expressed acknowledgment of the frustration caused by Thursday’s outage and committed to applying the $5 credit to “potentially impacted accounts” within two billing cycles. The company explained that the $5 credit represented the average cost of a full day of service.
While AT&T did not provide an exact figure for the number of customers expected to receive the credit, a letter addressed to employees stated that approximately one quarter of customers were unable to access the network as of 5 a.m. on Thursday.
In the same communication, AT&T CEO John Stankey attributed the initial outage to the company’s flawed “application and execution of an incorrect process” during efforts to expand the network.
Despite initial concerns about a potential cyberattack, AT&T confirmed on Thursday evening that an internal error was the likely cause of the widespread outage. Both the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI assisted AT&T in investigating the incident, with National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby reassuring reporters that there was no evidence of a cyberattack.