Service outages for AT&T customers in VA, NC

It's hardly a "happy hump day" for AT&T with reports of service outages beginning around 4 a.m. this morning. AT&T said the service issue has been resolved.

"We worked as quickly as possible to restore service to some customers in the coastal areas of Virginia and North Carolina whose service may have been affected this morning by an equipment failure. We apologize for the inconvenience," a spokesperson with AT&T told Light Reading in an email.

Most customer reports came in from the Virginia area, including Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Norfolk, Williamsburg, Newport News and Hampton. Houston, Texas, is also among the most reported locations, according to Ookla's Downdetector site. In an email to Light Reading, AT&T explained there were service issues in some areas of Virginia and North Carolina, but the service disruptions aren't nationwide.

At 7:17 a.m., customer reports of outages peaked at 1,293, which is an increase of nearly 12,000% over the normal baseline of 11 reports at that time of day, according to Ookla's Downdetector site.

(Source: Ookla's Downdetector site) Downdetector report for AT&T outage on May 22, 2024. This chart shows a view of problem reports submitted in the past 24 hours compared to the typical volume of reports by time of day.

"Downdetector only reports an incident when the number of problem reports is significantly higher than the typical volume for that time of day," noted Downdetector.

Customers appeared to be most impacted by mobile service, with 57% of reports related to mobile phones. In addition, 32% of reports related to having "no signal" and 11% are regarding mobile Internet.

Related:AT&T's outage twists up its MWC story

Follows February outage

Following a service outage in markets including Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Atlanta in February, AT&T offered customers a $5 credit to apologize for the incident, reported Light Reading. The offer could cost AT&T up to $140 million.

Nearly 75,000 customers were impacted during the February outage. AT&T explained that outage was "caused by the application and execution of an incorrect process used as we were expanding our network, not a cyber attack. We are continuing our assessment of today's outage to ensure we keep delivering the service that our customers deserve."

As of this writing, Light Reading had not received a statement from AT&T regarding the cause of the most recent outage.