Lightning, Fire Blamed for AT&T Internet, U-verse Outage in Dallas-Fort Worth

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Company has given no timetable for when services may be restored
 

Reports of restored AT&T Internet and U-verse service across Dallas-Fort Worth started coming into the NBC 5 newsroom Monday night.
 

A lightning strike and fire at an AT&T facility in North Texas caused widespread internet outages in the area, the company said.
 

In a statement released to NBC 5 Monday morning, AT&T said:

“Damage caused by a fire at one of our facilities may be affecting internet services for some of our customers in the Dallas area. We are working to restore service as quickly as possible.”

Richardson officials confirmed the fire department was called at about 9:45 a.m. about an electrical fire at an AT&T switching station on the 1600 block of Firman Drive.
 

The fire, which started at a power switch and burned primary and backup electrical systems, was contained to an electrical room.
 

The city said the damaged systems controlled AT&T U-verse service for customers throughout the North Texas area.
 

While city officials said a cause for the fire has not been determined, @ATTCares told a customer on Twitter the fire was likely caused by a lightning strike.

"Due to a direct lightning strike on one of our facilities in the area, we are experiencing internet issues. We are currently working to restore service as quickly as possible."

Other than to say they'll have service restored as soon as possible, the company has provided no timeline on a repair or said how many customers are impacted by the outage.
 

An map on downdetector.com shows a heavy concentration of outages in North Texas. Click here to see the outage map.

 

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