NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- With restoration and repair efforts continuing in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav's devastation, AT&T has taken additional steps to help customers hardest hit by the storm by waiving charges for some services and offering telephony relocation free of charge.
"Many of our consumer and business customers in Louisiana have experienced significant damage and loss due to Hurricane Gustav," said William Oliver, President, Louisiana Operations. "AT&T wants to aid them in every way we can with their communications. Our disaster recovery plan assists customers who require service in temporary locations so they can stay in touch during this difficult time."
The AT&T Disaster Relief Plan includes the following assistance for qualifying consumer and business customers:
-- If customers cannot be in their regular home or business location, but want to stay in touch with family, friends, customers or suppliers, AT&T has waived fees on many options to keep them connected. This relief is available until October 3, 2008. -- Service charges associated with providing dial tone phone service to a new or temporary location will be waived, as well as charges for a move back to the original location. When service is provided at the temporary location, one jack and associated wiring will be provided free of charge. -- One free month of the following services including a waiver of the secondary service charge associated with any of these: - AT&T Voice Mail service, which provides for calls to be answered and allows the caller to leave a message when you are unable to answer. You can retrieve messages from any touch-tone telephone. - Remote Access to Call Forwarding, which allows customers to activate or deactivate call forwarding from any telephone equipped with touch tone. - Call Forwarding Don't Answer, which automatically routes calls that are not answered within a designated number of rings to another telephone number. - Call Forwarding Busy Line, which automatically routes calls to another pre-selected telephone number when the line is busy. - Remote Call Forwarding, Call Forwarding Variable, Message Waiting Indicator, Star98 Access and Voice Mail Companion Services Package are also included in the list of waived services that customers could consider using.
Customers desiring more information about these options or other ways AT&T may assist your home or business in reestablishing communications should call the following numbers or visit http://www.att.com/
Consumer: 888-757-6500 Small Business Customers: 866-620-6000 Business Customers: 800-945-6500
Customers needing to call AT&T for repair service may call us at the following phone numbers or send an online repair request at http://www.att.com/
Consumer: 877-737-2478 Business: 866-620-6900
In an effort to further help residents stay in touch with family and friends during this emergency, AT&T is making additional emergency communications resources available, including:
-- Enabling free Wi-Fi access at hundreds of hot spots in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, including at select McDonald's restaurants, Barnes & Noble locations and AT&T Experience Store(SM) locations, among others. -- Providing free wireless GoPhones with $15 in air time to thousands of evacuees from mandatory evacuation areas who are sheltered in affected areas in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and south Texas. -- Providing free phone calls for hurricane victims at all open company-owned retail locations across Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and portions of northwest Florida, including Pensacola, Fort Walton and Destin. -- Installing phone banks and DSL connections for free use by evacuees who are sheltered in San Antonio, Birmingham and Shreveport.
For AT&T wireless customers displaced by the storm, the company would like to remind them that all of AT&T's national wireless plans include free call forwarding, caller-id, call waiting, three-way calling and these customers never pay domestic long distance or roaming charges.
Network Restoration Continues
The company's wireless and wireline networks continue to perform well despite storm disruptions and unusually heavy usage. AT&T continues to deploy significant resources for the restoration of communications and customer support across Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav. Nearly 2,000 AT&T personnel, including employees from half a dozen states in the Southeast, have been deployed to the affected area to assess damage and help expedite restoration efforts. Additional resources are at the ready and will be deployed as needed.
Cautionary Language Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Information set forth in this news release contains financial estimates and other forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. A discussion of factors that may affect future results is contained in AT&T's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. AT&T disclaims any obligation to update or revise statements contained in this news release based on new information or otherwise.
About AT&T
AT&T Inc. is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates, AT&T operating companies, are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. Among their offerings are the world's most advanced IP-based business communications services and the nation's leading wireless, high speed Internet access and voice services. In domestic markets, AT&T is known for the directory publishing and advertising sales leadership of its Yellow Pages and YELLOWPAGES.COM organizations, and the AT&T brand is licensed to innovators in such fields as communications equipment. As part of its three-screen integration strategy, AT&T is expanding its TV entertainment offerings. Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com/.
(C) 2008 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other marks contained herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies.
Note: This AT&T news release and other announcements are available as part of an RSS feed at http://www.att.com/rss. For more information, please review this announcement in the AT&T newsroom at http://www.att.com/newsroom.
