WASHINGTON (Reuters) — New York Attorney General Letitia James said today her office is investigating the cause of last week’s AT&T for up to 12 hours as well as the telecom firm’s response.
The Federal Communications Commission is also investigating the February 22 outage. AT&T said Saturday it would provide $5 billing credits for consumers who were impacted but has not disclosed how many customers temporarily lost service. The outage impacted some emergency 911 calls, local officials said.
An initial AT&T review found the outage was caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process while working to expand the network, the company said, ruling out a cyberattack. AT&T says its 5G network reaches around 290 million people across the United States.
“Nationwide outages are not just an inconvenience, they can be dangerous, and it’s critical that we protect consumers when an outage occurs,” James said.
Liberty Mobile operates AT&T’s former network in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
“The New York Attorney General’s call for an investigation into AT&T’s recent outage focuses solely on that company, not Liberty,” Liberty spokeswoman Laura Diaz told the Virgin Islands Free Press. “Although we purchased AT&T’s assets in the USVI, we are two separate companies. Therefore, we cannot speak for AT&T.”
AT&T did not immediately comment.
Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Nick Zieminski
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