AT&T's Mea Culpa for Massive Outage: $5

AT&T says it will give affected customers $5 each to compensate for last week's cellphone network outage that left many without service for hours, the AP reports. The Dallas-based company said on its website that customers will get the $5 credit on their account within two billing cycles. (That's the average cost of a full day of service, the company says.) The credit does not apply to AT&T Business, prepaid service, or Cricket, its low-cost wireless service. AT&T said prepaid customers will have options available to them if they were impacted, although it did not elaborate on what those options might be.

The outage knocked out cellphone service for thousands of its users across the US starting early Thursday before it was restored. "We recognize the frustration this outage has caused and know we let many of our customers down," AT&T says in a statement on its website. "We understand this may have impacted their ability to connect with family, friends, and others. Small business owners may have been impacted, potentially disrupting an essential way they connect with customers. ... We want to reassure our customers of our commitment to reliably connect them—anytime and anywhere." AT&T says it is also taking steps to prevent this from happening again.

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