FCC issues FirstNet outage report

The US Federal Communications Commission has issued a report detailing the “cause and impact” of a nationwide AT&T wireless service outage, taking place on February 22nd of this year.

As well as the network’s commercial customers the outage also impacted on users of the First Responder Network Authority, otherwise known as FirstNet. According to the FCC, AT&T prioritised the restoration of FirstNet, “but did not notify FirstNet customers of the outage until three hours after it began, and nearly one hour after service was restored.”

Communicating via a statement, the Commission states that the commercial network outage lasted “at least 12 hours,” preventing customers from using voice and data services. This included the blocking of more than 92 million phone calls and 25,000 attempts to reach 911.  

The outage affected users in all 50 states as well as Washington DC, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands, with all AT&T voice and 5G data services becoming unavailable. It also impacted on network roaming services.

An FCC investigation into the incident found that it began after “AT&T implemented a network change with an equipment configuration error.” The statement continued: “The [investigation] report details numerous factors that resulted in the extensive scope and duration of the outage, and it cites the corrective actions since taken by AT&T to prevent a reoccurrence.

“The report stresses that this ‘sunny day’ outage highlights the need for network operators to adhere to their internal procedures and industry best practices when implementing network changes.

”To implement sufficient network controls to mitigate configuration errors so they do not escalate and disrupt network operations, and to have appropriate systems and procedures in place with adequate capacity to facilitate prompt recovery from large-scale outages.

“Based on its investigation into this AT&T wireless outage, the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau has referred this matter to the Enforcement Bureau for potential violations of FCC rules. The FCC is also currently investigating a recently disclosed AT&T breach of consumer data and working closely with law enforcement agencies.” 

FCC chairwoman, Jessica Rosenworcel, said: “When you sign-up for wireless service, you expect it will be available when you need it – especially for emergencies.

“This ‘sunny day’ outage prevented consumers across the country from communicating, including by blocking 911 calls, and stopped public safety personnel from using FirstNet. We take this incident seriously and are working to provide accountability for this lapse in service and prevent similar outages in the future.”

Responding to the report, an AT&T spokesperson said: “We have implemented changes to prevent what happened in February from occurring again. We fell short of the standards that we hold ourselves to, and we regret that we failed to meet the expectations of our customers and the public safety community. 

“FirstNet was restored in advance of the AT&T commercial network due to the unique features of the dedicated FirstNet network core and our dedication to serving our nation’s first responders. We continue to work closely with the First Responder Network Authority to provide public safety with the dedicated connectivity they require to communicate with one another.”