AT&T is giving customers $5 to compensate for the recent cellphone network outage

AT&T says it will give affected customers $5 each to compensate for last week's cellphone network outage that left many without service for hours.

The outage knocked out cellphone service to thousands of its users across the U.S. beginning early Thursday before being restored.

The Dallas-based company said on its website that customers will get the $5 credit on their account within two billing cycles.

AT&T said, "For the portion of consumer and small business customers most impacted by the outage, we are automatically applying an account credit to compensate them for the inconvenience they experienced. " "We are also working closely with our Business customers and will address their concerns as those discussions take place."

AT&T said prepaid customers will have options available to them if they were impacted, but did not elaborate on what those options might be.

AT&T said the outage occurred due to an application and execution of an incorrect process used while working to expand their network and said it was not the result of a cyberattack.

They also said, "We have not seen any evidence and have no reason to believe the Feb. 22 outage involved a third party or that customer data was compromised during the event."

There is no action required of customers - Credits will be applied automatically.

Please also be aware of phishing scams.

AT&T said, "We will not ask you to click a link to redeem the credit. If you receive a message asking you to click a link to redeem the credit, please report SPAM and forward to 7726."