Verizon Outage Knocks Out Service for Customers in Multiple States

Verizon customers across the US were hit by a major outage on Wednesday, leaving many phones stuck in SOS mode and cutting off access to mobile data and voice calls. According to reports, the problems began around midday ET, and they quickly spread across multiple regions, with the highest number of complaints coming from the East Coast.

Big Verizon outage disrupts service for customers across the US

The main issue appears to be a total loss of cellular connectivity. Galaxy phones on Verizon showed either no signal or a crossed-out network icon, while iPhones displayed the familiar SOS message. In real-world use, this meant no mobile data and no regular voice calls.

“We are aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers. Our engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly. We understand how important reliable connectivity is and apologize for the inconvenience,” Verizon wrote on X around 1:40 PM EST on Wednesday.

Verizon also confirmed that the outage affected both wireless voice and data services. The company said its engineering teams were fully deployed and working to fix the issue. But it did not share the cause of the outage or an estimated time for full recovery. Even Verizon’s own network status page struggled to load while the disruption was ongoing.

Meanwhile, our friends at 9to5Google note that Verizon MVNOs such as Visible do not appear to be affected. At the same time, AT&T and T-Mobile are also seeing issues, though not on the same scale. We’ll be sure to add updates to this story once the outage is fully resolved.