Verizon customers across the U.S. experienced a widespread cellular outage on Wednesday, disrupting voice and data services and leading to urgent warnings about 911 calls.
A widespread outage hit Verizon customers across the U.S. on Wednesday, severely disrupting calling and other cellular services. Verizon acknowledged an 'issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers' and deployed engineering teams to resolve it, though the cause remained unspecified. Outage tracker Downdetector reported issues starting around noon E.T., peaking in the early afternoon, with close to 33,000 reports by 8:00 p.m. ET. Many impacted users saw their phones in 'SOS' mode or displaying 'no signal' messages. Alerts in New York warned that the outage could disrupt 911 calls, advising residents to use landlines, other carriers, or visit emergency stations in person. Major cities like Washington D.C., Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and Atlanta were among the affected hubs. While other carriers like T-Mobile and AT&T confirmed their services were operational, they noted their customers might have trouble contacting Verizon users. In such outages, connecting to Wi-Fi for internet calling or using satellite messaging on newer iPhones are suggested alternatives.
