A week after AT&T suffered a massive cellphone outage that affected customers from coast to coast, the New York Attorney General's Office is launching an investigation.
Attorney General Letitia James said she encourages all affected New Yorkers to file a complaint with her office. James said AT&T customers could not place calls, send text messages or access the internet for up to 12 hours on Feb. 22.
The company said the outage was due to "the application and execution of an incorrect process used while working to expand our network."
AT&T says the outage started at 5 a.m. and affected about three-quarters of all cellphone customers. The company says that service was normalized by noon.
AT&T to credit $5 to customers impacted by the widespread outage
The service interruption lasted for more than 10 hours on Thursday, finally getting restored later in the evening.
Customers will get a $5 credit on an upcoming statement.
While the outage was an inconvenience for some, it caused some not to be able to reach emergency services or conduct business.
“Americans rely on cell service providers for consistent and reliable service to help them with nearly every aspect of their daily lives,” said James. “Nationwide outages are not just an inconvenience, they can be dangerous, and it’s critical that we protect consumers when an outage occurs. I encourage any New Yorker who was affected by this disruption to file a complaint with my office.”
