AT&T Inc.\u2019s chief executive apologized on Sunday for an hours-long nationwide service outage that affected some of its wireless customers last week, and said it will credit the accounts of many of those affected as compensation.<\/p>\n
AT&T later specified on its website that affected consumers would see a $5 credit within their next two billing cycles.<\/p>\n
In a letter<\/a> to employees, CEO John Stankey called last Thursday\u2019s outage \u201ca challenging day.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe let down many of our customers, including many of you and your families. For that, we apologize,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While there had been immediate concerns that AT&T Stankey did not specify how widespread the outage was, but said about 25% of its customers were not able to access the network starting around 6 a.m. Eastern, with service fully restored by early afternoon.<\/p>\n Consumer and small-business customers who were affected will see an automatic account credit for a full day of service to compensate them for the inconvenience, Stankey said. Options for pre-paid, mid-market and enterprise customers are still being worked out, he said.<\/p>\n Stankey said compensation \u201cis the right thing to do,\u201d and that the payments should be manageable within the company\u2019s previously stated financial guidance.<\/p>\n AT&T shares are flat year to date and down about 13% over the past 12 months, compared to the S&P 500\u2019s
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\n had been the victim of hackers, the company said late Thursday<\/a> that the problem was caused by a software update, \u201cnot a cyber attack.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n 7% gain this year and 28% rise over the past year.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n