Network 'issue' smacks AT&T, while T-Mobile sees opportunity

AT&T reported an "issue" this week that affected some calls between its customers and customers of another, unnamed operator. AT&T said it was not a nationwide outage, but the incident yet again raises the specter of networking troubles for the company.

The situation earned AT&T another round of public relations headaches: "After second outage this year, experts say AT&T risks customer loyalty," warned CNN. "'Nationwide issue' affecting cell service between carriers resolved, AT&T says," reported NBC News.

The operator's latest stumble doesn't appear to be as serious as the outage that brought AT&T's network to its knees for hours in February. AT&T ultimately offered $5 credits to customers, though its overall performance in the first quarter appeared relatively unaffected.

Nonetheless, the operator again this week reported technical troubles that affected customers' services.

"The issue disrupting calls between carriers has been resolved. We collaborated with the other carrier to find a solution and appreciate our customers' patience during this period," AT&T wrote on social media.

Reports indicated AT&T worked with Verizon to resolve the situation.

An ongoing issue

To be clear, virtually all telecom companies in the US experience outages of one kind or another.

For example, Verizon customers, primarily in the Midwest and into some Western states, last week reported some outages with their cell service.

Indeed, the situation is such that T-Mobile this week announced its new Home Internet Backup, "a new plan that will give traditional internet service provider (ISP) customers – like cable and fiber – an affordable, reliable, backup 5G internet connection in case their primary service goes down," according to the company.

Citing data from CivicScience, T-Mobile noted that 20% of US Internet users report outages at least a few times a month.

AT&T, for its part, is in the early stages of a major network overhaul that will see Ericsson take over as its primary wireless networking equipment vendor.