AT&T is citing damaged hardware in their Anchorage facilities as the reason why many Kenai Peninsula residents could not call cell phones on other mobile carriers or 911 Wednesday evening.
Spokesman Andy Colley with AT&T says the company is not giving interviews but stated in an email: “The issue began late Wednesday afternoon and service was fully restored late Wednesday evening. Engineers and technicians worked to resolve the problem as quickly as possible, and replaced damaged hardware in one of our Anchorage facilities, which restored service to all affected sites.”
While the AT&T users calling abilities were impacted, texting services remained functioning.
The outage appeared to affect customers statewide, with KSRM listeners reporting the outage in Kenai, Soldotna, Homer, Sterling and Kasilof.
Anchorage Police Department also posted around 7:00 pm that residents there were effected as well. The post suggested that if an emergency arose, customers could potentially “either use a landline or a cell phone on another network. You may also text someone else, who is on another network, to call for you.”
The outage was corrected late Wednesday night and AT&T apologized for the inconvenience.