AT&T is offering a $5 credit to customers affected by a service outage

AT&T will offer a $5 credit to customers affected Thursday by a widespread outage caused by technical problems the company encountered while trying to expand its network, its CEO said Sunday.

The outage, which started around 3:30 a.m. Eastern Time, temporarily disconnected users in the United States.

Some of the affected cities included Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York, according to Downdetector.comthat maintains user reports of telecommunications and Internet disruptions.

At its peak, the site had received approximately 70,000 reports of service disruptions for AT&T. The service was fully restored after approximately seven hours.

“Regardless of the timing, one thing is clear: we have failed many of our customers, including many of you and your families,” said AT&T CEO John T. Stankey. wrote in a letter on Sunday. “We apologize for this.”

In an effort to “make it up to you,” AT&T is offering customers a $5 credit to their AT&T Wireless account, according to the company’s website.

“For the portion of consumer and small business customers most affected by the outage, we will automatically apply an account credit to compensate them for the inconvenience they have experienced,” the company said.

It will take one to two billing cycles for the credit to appear, depending on when a customer’s bill closes, the company said.

Prepaid customers will have options available if they are affected, Mr. Stankey wrote, but he did not specifically mention those options.

AT&T also said it is “working closely” with Mid-Market and Enterprise customers, business internet plans, to address their concerns.

It was not immediately clear how much the credits would yield in lost revenue. A company representative could not be reached Sunday.

In a statement, AT&T emphasizes that the outage was not caused by a cyber attack.

“Our initial investigation into the cause of Thursday’s outage indicates that it was due to the application and execution of an improper process used to expand our network,” Mr. Stankey wrote in his letter.

The credit is intended to reimburse customers for the day service was lost, he wrote.

“I believe it is the right thing to do to credit these customers for essentially a full day of service,” Mr. Stankey wrote.