AT&T to replace 17,000 batteries after four incidents

AT&T has decided to replace backup batteries in 17,000 of its U-verse TV network cabinets across the country after two fires and two explosions in a little over a year. No one was hurt by the malfunctioning batteries, according to AT&T, but there was some property damage.

Normally, AT&T would have worked with the vendor to diagnose problems and develop solutions. But the malfunctioning batteries were all manufactured by the now defunct company Avestor, so, after the first two incidents AT&T the telephone giant hired a consulting firm to investigate the cause of the incidents. Even though the consulting firm concluded that the risk of hazardous failures with these batteries was low, after the last two incidents the carrier had no choice but to overrule the investigator’s findings and proceed with the battery recall.

This is not the first time AT&T’s digital television and internet service, U-verse, suffers a setback during its rollout schedule. Last year the service suffered an outage after the company loaded new software.