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Verizon Outage Leaves Phones in ‘SOS’ Across U.S. With No Timeline for Fix

Emergency officials warned some users could be unable to reach 911.

Overview

  • Verizon acknowledged a widespread disruption to wireless voice and data and said engineers are working to resolve it without disclosing a cause or restoration estimate.
  • Outage reports on Downdetector peaked around 175,000–180,000, with complaints spanning major cities including New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston.
  • Many devices displayed “SOS” status as calls and mobile data failed for some customers, texts could work over Wi‑Fi, and Verizon’s network status page was intermittently unavailable.
  • Washington, D.C., and New York City issued alerts that some Verizon users might have trouble reaching 911 and advised using another carrier, a landline or visiting police or fire stations.
  • Other carriers saw smaller, likely collateral effects; T‑Mobile said its network was operating normally though calls to Verizon users may fail, some Verizon home internet was affected, and MVNO Visible reported little impact.