AT&T CEO addresses major surge in mobile, Wi-Fi usage as more people work from home

AT&T’s networks have seen a surge of usage since companies around the United States have asked employees to work from home and schools have moved online following the COVID-19 outbreak. CEO Randall Stephenson said that “mobile volumes are up 40 percent,” and “Wi-Fi calling volumes are up 100 percent.” Stephenson added the network infrastructures are “performing quite well,” but noted the company is seeing some stress as more people work from home. Stephenson added that considering how many people are working from home, and how this will change the future of work once the crisis is over, AT&T will “come out of this crisis [and] continue investing in 5G and new technology.” “I think it’s going to cause every business to evaluate how we do business,” Stephenson told CNN when asked about what happens when things start to return to normal. “I think when we come out of this, this is exactly what we’re going to see.” AT&T itself currently has approximately 90,000 employees working from home, according to Stephenson.

For the next 60 days, AT&T will waive all of its domestic wireless overage fees for customers nationwide, and making it retroactive. AT&T says that any overage past March 13 will not entail a charge. The company had already waved the overages for home internet, but now it applies to wireless voice, text, and data, both residential and small business.