JACKSON, Miss.-SkyTel Corp. issued a statement apologizing for inadvertently paging 100,000 customers, which resulted in frenzy of calls and more pages.
A customer service representative had programmed a pager for a customer and attempted to send a test page to ensure it was programmed correctly.
But the number combination she entered as the PIN for that customer actually was the capcode for SkyTel’s SkyNews service, explained company spokesman Johnny Hales.
SkyNews alphanumeric subscribers were alerted and given a number to call back, which actually is the number for subscribers to retrieve SkyNews messages. Those customers who called back reached a prompt asking they enter their pager number. From there, a rebroadcast occurred.
“The broadcasts were not billable events and did not diminish the capacity of the system,” said John Stupka, president of Mobile Telecommunication Technologies Corp. Mtel is SkyTel’s parent company.
Stupka issued a public apology and said it was unlikely such an event would happen again.
The errant pages early Thursday morning and the chaos that followed lasted less then a half hour.
Spokesman Hales said SkyTel’s customer service department realized what happened within a few minutes and sent a text message to customers explaining the mishap.
