AT&T's recent outage has left customers frustrated and experts concerned about the company's response, potentially putting its user loyalty at risk. On Tuesday, the wireless giant experienced its second prolonged outage this year, prompting social media users to express their dissatisfaction and contemplate switching to rival Verizon.

While it is not uncommon for companies to face outages, experiencing two extensive service disruptions within a short span of time raises eyebrows. Mojtaba Vaezi, a professor and director of the Wireless Networking Laboratory at Villanova University, criticized AT&T's handling of the situation, particularly when it took longer than expected to restore services.

Although AT&T did not disclose the exact number of affected customers, reports on the website Down Detector indicated a significant surge in issues with AT&T's service starting around 1 pm ET on Tuesday. Notably, the number of reported incidents gradually subsided by 6 pm ET. The cities with the highest number of reported issues included New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Pittsburgh, and Indianapolis.

Furthermore, due to the connectivity problem encountered by AT&T, thousands of Verizon customers also reported a service outage on Tuesday, as shown on Down Detector.

In response to the outage, AT&T released a statement assuring customers that the issue had been resolved and that calls between AT&T customers were unaffected. However, critics argue that AT&T's lack of proactive communication eroded customer trust and left users scrambling to understand the situation.

AT&T faced a similar outage in February, which lasted nearly 12 hours and impacted tens of thousands of customers. At the time, impacted customers were offered a $5 credit. Subscribers expressed frustration over the delay in receiving outage notifications from the company.

Karen North, a communications professor specializing in brand management and crisis communications at the University of Southern California, believes that AT&T's initial lack of communication may further damage customer faith. North emphasized the importance of transparency and timely updates to keep customers informed and reassured during service disruptions.

While AT&T claimed that 911 calls were not affected during the outage, some locations, including Camden County, Georgia, and Scranton, Pennsylvania, reported disruptions in emergency calls. AT&T stated that these alerts were mistakenly sent and is investigating the matter.

With two consecutive outages and a recent data breach in March, AT&T faces the challenge of rebuilding customer trust. Analysts suggest that the company needs to provide a clear message addressing the issues and demonstrate empathy towards the impact these service disruptions have on customers' personal and professional lives.

AT&T has yet to outline specific measures to regain customer confidence, but it can be expected that the company will work diligently to rectify these recent challenges and ensure reliable service moving forward.