Small businesses in Central Arkansas cease operations following multiple complaints of AT&T service disruptions

Little Rock, Arkansas – Customers and small businesses around central Arkansas were affected by an AT&T outage on Saturday, which caused credit card systems to go down.

As of 2022, AT&T provides internet and Wi-Fi services to over 225k users in Arkansas, according to AT&T Connects.

Earlier in the day, there had been reports of outages in Little Rock’s Heights neighborhood. Although the outages have already been fixed, they had an impact on several companies, including Steamroller Blues in the Heights.

“I would say around like 2 o’clock this afternoon, peak busy time on a Saturday, everyone’s leaving Heights Taco coming in and shopping, and our Internet went out,” Manager of Steamroller Blues in the Heights, Kaitlyn Elkins, said. “So really affects like especially busy days when we can’t call someone to come work on it can put the damper on business.”

Elkins claimed that while her company was able to overcome the difficulties, other companies weren’t as fortunate.

“Well, luckily, we have a website so you can get on our website and add products, so that’s what we were basically doing, shopping our own website from our phones,” Elkins said. “If you’re a business like a restaurant, that can’t just, you know, operate off of a website that’s pretty tough.”

Elkins said that they lost a great deal of revenue to customers who didn’t have access to cash or other mobile banking apps.

“If I can’t use my card, I typically don’t carry cash, so I typically have to use Venmo if I can, but if not, I’d have to leave, I guess,” customer Olivia Riley said.

Elkins reported that she is seeing less and less cash associated with transactions.