AT&T is promising customers that in the event of a connection blackout, it will not just work to restore service, but also compensate them. A credit equivalent to a full day of service will be applied to the bill if there is a fiber outage lasting more than 20 minutes or wireless outage lasting more than an hour.
The terms are the same for both residential and business customers. Additionally, AT&T will work with small business customers to make things right by connecting them with technicians.
AT&T is the first carrier to launch a guarantee of this kind and its importance cannot be understated, given the number of outages customers across the industry experienced last year. The company says that a customer is four times more likely to opt for a service provider that offers a guarantee like this one.
Customers tell us they want confidence in their service provider and offering a guarantee makes them four times more likely to choose a brand that offers one. It’s about being transparent, taking action and ensuring our customers know they are supported.
Kellyn Kenny, Chief Growth & Marketing Officer at AT&T, January 2025
Since 2019, we’ve invested more than $140 billion in our network and almost a billion dollars in customer care and operations, and that’s brought us to where we are today – becoming the first and only carrier that offers a guarantee for wireless and fiber networks.
Jenifer Robertson, Executive Vice President & GM at AT&T Mass Markets & Mobility, January 2025
It’s hard not to think back to the February 2024 outage that left hundreds of thousands of subscribers without mobile service for hours and prompted the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch an investigation.
Regardless, the new policy a sign that the company is determined to keep outages at bay, and the monetary compensation it’s offering can be viewed as a fine in itself, of sorts. After all, what better way to keep an organization on its toes than the fear of losing money in the event of an outage? T-Mobile and Verizon might want to take notes, considering they also faced outages last year.
AT&T also reminds consumers that its best smartphone deals are for both new and existing customers. The company will also give customers who end up being put on hold for more than five minutes when calling technical support a $5 Visa gift card.
