Many Verizon customers across the U.S. experienced a significant service outage on Monday, disrupting cellphone service for tens of thousands of users. According to data from outage tracker DownDetector, reports of the issue exceeded 100,000 shortly after 11 a.m. Eastern Time (1500 GMT). While the number of affected users decreased as the day progressed, nearly 48,000 were still facing connectivity problems by 4 p.m. ET (2000 GMT).
Frustrated users took to online platforms to express their displeasure, highlighting that the outage impacted various regions, including the Southeastern U.S., where communities are still recovering from the recent Hurricane Helene. However, the service disruption was not confined to a single area; DownDetector's map indicated numerous reports from the West Coast, Midwest, and Northeast as well.
In response, New York-based Verizon issued a statement acknowledging the network issue and apologizing \"for any inconvenience some of our customers experienced today.\" The company confirmed that service has been restored for many users but assured that their engineers are diligently working to fully resolve the problem.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also acknowledged the outage later in the day but did not provide additional details, stating that they are investigating the cause of the disruption.
Some Verizon iPhone users reported seeing SOS messages in their phone's status bar, indicating that while their devices were having trouble connecting to Verizon's network, they could still make emergency calls through other carrier networks.
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Many Verizon customers across the U.S. hit by service outage
cgtn.com
