Dish Network, the first largest and direct-broadcast satellite service provider in the United States, has been experiencing a major internal outage since Thursday morning that has caused its company’s main websites, apps, and customer support systems to remain offline for almost 2 days now.
Apparently, the outage began around the same time that Dish was to release the company’s earnings for Q4 and fiscal year 2022. CEO Erik Carlson took the opportunity to address the outage problems.
“This morning, we experienced an internal outage that’s continuing to affect our internal servers and IT telephony. Our Dish and Sling services and our wireless and data networks continue to operate normally, are up and running,” said Carlson on Thursday morning.
Carlson acknowledged that the glitch has also affected internal communications and Internet sites due to which all are down. Even Dish Network employees who are working remotely are unable to access their work systems.
Dish Network websites and apps including Dish.com, DishWireless.com, and Dish Anywhere are affected by the outage causing authentication issues for many customers.
“We apologize for any disruptions you may be having. We are experiencing an internal system issue and our teams are working hard to restore systems as soon as possible,” reads a message on the company’s homepage. “Thank you for your patience.”
A similar message to the one above is displayed on the Boost Mobile and Boost Infinite sites too.
According to The Verge, customers are also complaining that they are unable to pay their bills, as all IT systems (phone, web, authorization, payments) have been down for more than 24 hours. Customers have also reported experiencing problems while connecting to the company’s call center phone numbers, as they are inaccessible.
However, the company reps are promising customers that they would not lose their service if they are unable to pay their bill due to the outage.
“We are currently experiencing issues with processing payments and making account updates for some customers. If you are affected, you will not lose your service while we resolve this issue. Thanks for being a valued DISH customer,” reads the reply from DISH Answers, the company’s Twitter support account, to one of the customer’s queries regarding being unable to pay the bill.
Further, for the accounts that aren’t affected by the outage, the company says they can “pay your bill by dialing 611, using the App or by visiting a store.”
The Verge report also shows an internal email sent by the management to Dish Network’s employees informing them of an ongoing “VPN issue.”
Two sources told the media outlet that the internal frontline employees have been left in the dark with no knowledge about what’s going on. They have been asked to “stand by” for information from the management, which hasn’t been forthcoming yet.
“They say it hasn’t even been made clear whether they’ll be paid,” states the report. “Employees have also been told that they won’t be able to connect to their VPN, keeping remote workers from logging in to work.”
While there are speculations that the company’s network “has been hit” (by a cyberattack) via BleepingComputer, a report from Desk citing “a person familiar with the issue” says that the outage doesn’t seem to be connected to a cyberattack or other cybersecurity issue.
The exact reason for the internal outage is not yet known, as Dish hasn’t concluded its investigation yet. As the matter is still underway, we will update this space as soon as we receive more information!
