AT&T has been getting a lot of heat lately for network issues and the massive data breach that not only alarmed the company loyalists but raised some serious questions on data privacy and security. The cyber attack compromised almost all consumer call and text records. The cellular connectivity outage received quite the backlash as the loss in connectivity lasted several hours, impacting more than 70,000 subscribers. Recently, an FCC report shed some light on the issue and the root cause of it.
Report reveals the reason behind the massive AT&T network outage in February, and it is more than a software update gone wrong
AT&T network has been under hot water for the past few months due to issues that keep erupting within the network. A major connection disruption on the company's end in February led to users being left without connectivity for several hours across the U.S., and the extent of the impact seems to be still looming as an FCC report has given details regarding the nationwide outage and suggested the issue was inevitable in its findings.
According to the Federal Communication Commission report, the outage impacted about 125 million devices, nearly all of the carrier's customers, and blocked 92 million voice calls. These include 25,000 emergency calls made to 911. Even though AT&T claimed to have resolved the issue within two hours, the service and connectivity took about 12 hours to be fully restored. Even the device's SOS mode was unable, causing emergencies to be halted and not catered to.
First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) did not have access to the services for the first two hours, causing major blockages in emergency communication channels. The FCC reported that the outage occurred due to a network change by AT&T, which included an error in equipment configuration.
Even though the main reason behind the outage was a faulty software update, the report suggested that it extended to greater reasons. It stated that the company did not perform the required internal testing before the update went live and did not adhere to the necessary internal processes, such as peer review, due to which the scale of the outage and its impact was unavoidable. The report highlighted the reasons for the prolonged issue by sharing:
The Bureau finds that the extensive scope and duration of this outage was the result of several factors, all attributable to AT&T Mobility, including a configuration error, a lack of adherence to AT&T Mobility’s internal procedures, a lack of peer review, a failure to adequately test after installation, inadequate laboratory testing, insufficient safeguards and controls to ensure approval of changes affecting the core network, a lack of controls to mitigate the effects of the outage once it began, and a variety of system issues that prolonged the outage once the configuration error had been remedied.
Since the impact of the outage was widespread, the FCC has forwarded the matter to its Enforcement Bureau to see if the FCC rules have been violated, and it appears that the issue may persist for some time.
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