During a recent webcasted meeting of the FirstNet Authority board, officials shed light on the circumstances surrounding the February 22 outage experienced by AT&T, their contracted carrier. While no new insights into the cause were revealed, they stressed that the carrier would face consequences for the disruption.

Renee Gordon, the vice chair of the FirstNet Authority board, outlined the organization's response to the AT&T outage, highlighting the expectation for AT&T to provide an after-action report. Gordon emphasized the importance of accountability, stating, "We understand the importance of this and will continue to hold AT&T accountable for delivering the network public safety requires and relies on for their life-saving missions."

While details regarding the cause remained scarce, Richard Carrizzo, chair of the FirstNet Authority board, reiterated that the issue was not due to a cyberattack but rather to "an incorrect process" during AT&T's network expansion. Carrizzo also confirmed that service was fully restored to all FirstNet users, with public-safety users prioritized, by 5 a.m. Central on February 22, indicating an outage duration of approximately two-and-a-half hours for affected subscribers.

FirstNet Authority's Executive Director and CEO, Joe Wassel, characterized the outage as a poignant reminder of the ongoing work required to build the most reliable and resilient network for public safety. Wassel outlined plans for the FirstNet Authority to collaborate closely with AT&T to identify the root cause and implement strategies for preventing future outages.

Acknowledging the inevitability of outages in the telecom sector, Wassel announced the establishment of a new task force aimed at developing best practices to mitigate and manage outages effectively. This task force, comprising technical and emergency management experts, will gather information about the event and provide recommendations to strengthen preparedness and emergency communication processes.

Wassel emphasized the importance of rapid response and collaboration with AT&T and the public-safety community in the event of future outages, underscoring the need for joint operational situational awareness.