Spokesman: Service restored after AT&T outage

Service has been restored for AT&T customers throughout the Chicago metropolitan area after a U-Verse home phone, Internet and cable outage Wednesday afternoon, according to a company spokesman.

The outage occurred around 2 p.m. and power was fully restored by 4 p.m., said spokesman Jim Kimberly.

“We’re not aware of anybody out at this time,” he said shortly before 5 p.m., adding that as far as he knew, outages affected only the Chicago area, despite reports that it was a statewide issue.

Kimberly did not know how many customers may have been affected or where they were located.

“The phone network is not like an electrical grid,” he said. “It could affect you and not your neighbor.”

To restore service, traffic was rerouted around a piece of equipment that had some issues, Kimberly said. AT&T is still investigating the cause of the outage.