Here’s the latest on the Verizon outage.
Is Verizon Still Down?
WSFA 12 News reports that many U.S. customers were unable to call, text, or access cellular data since their phones went into SOS mode as a result of a disruption in Verizon’s wireless network on Wednesday. According to Downdetector, more than 175,000 customers reported outages by 12:51 p.m. ET.
The outage lasted nearly 10 hours and impacted more than 1.5 million customers, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. Areas affected include New York City, southern New Jersey, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco, Boston, and Houston, per USA Today.
“It’s frustrating, especially when I pay a three-hundred-dollar Verizon phone bill,” Ernesto Lake, a truck driver passing through Alabama, expressed to WSFA 12 News. “I rely on my devices — my tablet for GPS and my phone for communication.”
Wednesday evening, Verizon notified customers, “the outage has been resolved,” per the Tallahassee Democrat. Verizon also mentioned that customers who still had issues accessing their devices would need to “restart their devices to reconnect to the network.”
What Caused the Outage
At the time of this writing, Verizon has not shared what caused the outage. According to the Tallahassee Democrat, there was no indication of a cyberattack.
Update from Verizon
Today, Verizon acknowledged it failed to “meet the standard of excellence you expect and that we expect of ourselves,” in a post on X.
To restore customer confidence, the company shared that it will now provide a $20 credit to customers who were impacted, redeemable when they log in to the myVerizon app.
“You will receive a text message when the credit is available. On average, this covers multiple days of service. Business customers will be contacted directly about their credits,” the company said on X. “This credit isn’t meant to make up for what happened. No credit really can. But it’s a way of acknowledging your time and showing that this matters to us … We are sorry for what you experienced and will continue to work hard day and night to provide the outstanding network and service that you expect from Verizon.”
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr told Reuters that the agency will take a closer look at the outage and take appropriate action.