A few more things to consider about the AT&T outage.

Yep. I can't let it go.
Anyhoo, my good friend Google showed me a news article about Verizon Wireless building a switching center in Southfield, Michigan about four years ago. My good friend Mapquest shows a total distance of just over 5 miles between these 'burbs, give or take a bit of distance as I don't know the exact addresses of the facilities.
So! This means that, if indeed Verizon does have a switching center in Southfield, it's very possible, indeed probable, that switching center could have been affected by the same power outage that was at the root of AT&T's problems.
The difference? We haven't heard any news about Verizon customers being affected in the same way AT&T customers were.
Do I believe a power outage could cause a service disruption like this? Yes, but I also believe there were several failures along the way that caused this. Whether that's from a lazy NOC tech, lazy field tech, lackadaisical management or a combo thereof, I don't know.
What I do know is I'm sick of media outlets taking the word of public relations people as the gospel truth. Hard questions need to be asked, and some way or another, AT&T needs to be held accountable.