UPDATE A Christmas day explosion at AT&T regional headquarters in Nashville, TN left behind damage and disrupted service, but fortunately no fatalities. As Data Center Frontier reports, AT&T is getting back on its feet, setting up temporary COLT facilities to help get the community, and itself, reconnected.
“In the hours that followed the explosion, our local service remained intact through temporary battery power,” said Jeff McElfresh, CEO of AT&T Communications. “Unfortunately, a combination of the explosion and resulting water and fire damage took out a number of backup power generators intended to provide power to the batteries. That led to service disruptions across parts of Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama.”
The impacted building was AT&T’s central office for the region. Services from air traffic control, to credit card processing were all crippled by the blast. The reason for the intentional destruction has not yet been determined. An RV parked at the downtown location blared out warnings before the explosion occurred allowing people to evacuate the area.
By Sunday December 27, AT&T announced that 96 percent of its wireless networks had been restored. At the time of the announcement, AT&T indicated that 86 percent of consumer broadband functions were back online, with 60 percent of business services back in action as well.
The bomber has been identified as Anthony Q. Warner, whose late father was a BellSouth employee. Speculation from news sources has suggested that Warner may have been familiar with operations at that location. If Warner had a specific disagreement with AT&T, that information has not yet been reported. ABC-TV reported Warner may have had paranoia over 5G. He was the event’s only casualty.
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