Stay up to date with notifications from TheĀ Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Many Verizon customers across the US hit by service outage

Some Verizon customers have been hit by a service outage

Via AP news wire
Monday 30 September 2024 21:04 BST
Verizon Outage
Verizon Outage (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Some Verizon customers across the U.S. were hit by a service outage Monday.

The issue appeared to knock out cellphone service for tens of thousands of Verizon users. Data from outage tracker DownDetector shows that reports topped 100,000 shortly after 11 a.m. ET ā€” and while that number dropped significantly, nearly 48,000 were still facing issues closer to 4 p.m. ET.

Frustrated users online shared that they didn't have service in many parts of the country ā€” including the Southeastern U.S., where residents are still reeling from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. But the outage wasn't isolated to one region. DownDetector's map also showed many reports coming from the West Coast, Midwest and Northeast.

In an update posted on social media platform X, New York-based Verizon wrote that it was ā€œaware of an issue impacting service for some customers." The company added that it had engineers looking into the problem and was ā€œworking quickly to identify and solve the issue.ā€

The Federal Communications Commission also acknowledged the outage later in the day, but didn't provide further details beyond saying it was looking to determine the cause.

Some Verizon iPhone customers saw SOS messages displayed in the status bar on their cellphones. The message indicates that the device is having trouble connecting to their cellular providerā€™s network, but it can make emergency calls through other carrier networks.

During cell service outages like this, one alternative is connecting to nearby Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi calling is also a built-in feature on most Android devices and iPhones and can be turned on under the phoneā€™s settings.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in