AT&T Tells 245K Employees To Work From Home To Limit Coronavirus Exposure

AT&T on Friday instructed its more than 245,000 global and domestic employees to work remotely if they can due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Wireless giant AT&T instructed hundreds of thousands of its employees to work from home if possible on the heels of the COVID-19 coronavirus reaching pandemic status.

The new guidance was released on Friday by AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson. The Dallas-based carrier has more than 245,000 employees across all of its divisions globally, but it is unclear how many will be working remotely.

"We cannot control what has already happened, but we can control how we respond from here," Stephenson said in a memo to employees.

[Related: Cisco Employs Mandatory Work From Home Policy Due To Coronavirus]

Employees who work in the field -- in AT&T's retail stores or install equipment for customers -- are not affected. While that work can't be done remotely, Stephenson said that AT&T still will be taking "additional safeguards and implementing new procedures and policies" to protect its employees from the virus.

The guidance follows other directives issued by fellow tech giants, such as Amazon, Cisco, and Google which have also instructed employees to work from home.

AT&T on Thursday said it would suspend data caps for some broadband internet customers as more employees are forced to work from home during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Many of our AT&T internet customers already have unlimited home internet access, and we are waiving internet data overage for the remaining customers,” the carrier said in a statement. “Additionally, through Access From AT&T we’ll continue to offer internet data to qualifying limited-income households for $10 a month.”

AT&T rival Comcast said it would up the data speeds for low-income internet customers. Verizon has not said whether it will also be suspending data caps for customers in the wake of the outbreak.