High-speed Internet, digital TV and digital phone service Sure sounds like the future. But when all those services blow out like a candle, it’ll feel as if you’re living in the stone age. Some AT&T customers are learning that the hard way this week.
AT&T’s U-verse service, which includes its phone, Internet and digital TV services, has been down for three days now in some states in the Southwest and Southeast regions. Mark Siegel, an AT&T spokesman, said less than 1 percent of U-verse’s 7.4 million subscribers were affected by the service disruption, which is related to server problems. He declined to elaborate on what caused the servers to fail, or whether affected customers would be reimbursed.
“This issue currently affects less than 1 percent of our U-verse subscribers, but that is too many and we are working hard to fix this,†Mr. Siegel said in a statement. “We are making progress in resolving the issue, which is related to servers supporting U-verse, and are working to dtermine when service will be completely restored. We apologize for this inconvenience.â€
Wendy Miller, who lives in North Carolina, said in an interview that her U-verse service has been out for three days, and that she has heard nothing from AT&T about what the problem is and when it will be fixed. She said this experience made her miss the old days when the landline would still work even if the power went out.
“You go on U-verse, and the old handy dandy landlines that would work no matter what†she said. “That’s not happening any longer.†She added that her husband, who works from home, had to move somewhere else with a working Internet connection this week.
Dozens of U-verse customers took their complaints to AT&T’s online forums, in the thread “U-verse outage â€" what’s going on†Some talked about switching to another provider, like Comcast, while o! thers said they had to go to to a library or a Starbucks just to get on the Internet.
