Downdetector showed 168,395 outage reports at 9:36 a.m. Pacific as customers across the U.S. struggled to make and receive phone calls.
Verizon confirmed Wednesday that an issue was affecting wireless voice and data services for customers, with more than 100,000 reports of an outage at its peak, according to outage tracking site Downdetector.
The New York-based telecommunications giant and largest wireless carrier acknowledged the issue in a 10:07 a.m. PT post to social media platform X, noting that “our engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly.”
The company posted again at 11:14 a.m. PT, saying that engineers continued to work on the problem. “We understand the impact this has on your day and remain committed to resolving this as quickly as possible,” according to the post.
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Verizon Outage
CRN has reached out to Verizon for comment.
Outage reports on Downdetector reached 168,395 at 9:36 a.m. Pacific, cascading down to 63,542 reports at 11:51 a.m. Multiple Verizon users on X posted to say their phones were stuck in SOS mode. The outage extended from New York and Philadelphia to North Carolina and Texas, according to posts on Reddit.
At 9:57 a.m. PT, Washington, D.C.’s emergency alerts account on X posted that the “nationwide Verizon Wireless outage that may be affecting some users to connect with 911.”
“If you have an emergency and can not connect using your Verizon Wireless device, please connect using a device from another carrier, a landline, or go to a police district or fire station to report the emergency,” according to the service.
Other telecommunications companies saw a smaller number of outage reports on Downdetector Wednesday, with T-Mobile hitting 1,856 reports at 10:20 a.m. and AT&T hitting 1,746 reports at 10:05 a.m.
Still, T-Mobile wrote in a post to X at 11:28 a.m. Pacific that “T-Mobile’s network is keeping our customers connected, and we’ve confirmed that our network is operating normally and as expected.”
“However due to Verizon’s reported outage, our customers may not be able to reach someone with Verizon service at this time,” according to the post, implying that the reports on Downdetector could be T-Mobile users mistakenly thinking there is a T-Mobile outage.
An AT&T spokesperson told CRN that the company’s “network is operating normally at this time.”
CRN has reached out to T-Mobile for comment.
New York City indicated that it was feeling the effects of multiple cellphone network outages, with the city’s emergency management posting to X at 10:12 a.m. Pacific that it was assessing potential effects on city agencies and essential services.
“We are also gathering information and updates from the affected network providers,” it posted. “The cause and scope of the outage are still being investigated. We will provide updates if the situation changes in a way that impacts the City of New York.”
Verizon previously saw widespread outages last summer, when nearly 23,000 people reported a service outage shortly after 12:30 p.m. Pacific Aug. 30, according to TV station KRON4. Verizon blamed the outage on a software issue at the time.
The news of the outage comes a few months after Verizon confirmed in a regulatory filing that it plans to eliminate more than 13,000 positions, with more than 80 percent of affected employees having left in December. The company warned that severance charges could range from $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion during the fourth quarter of 2025 from the layoffs.
The nationwide outage is one of the first big tests for Dan Schulman, named Verizon’s new CEO back in October. Schulman took over for former CEO Hans Vestberg.
