Verizon encountered a substantial interruption to its wireless voice and data network on Wednesday, resulting in widespread service degradation for users across the United States. The company confirmed that various customers faced challenges placing calls and accessing data services, causing significant disruption throughout the day.
Data collected by Downdetector, a platform that aggregates outage reports from users, highlighted the magnitude of the issue. Within a 24-hour span, the site logged in excess of one million reports linked to Verizon's network disruption. The peak volume reached more than 178,000 reports within a brief 15-minute period, underscoring the severity and abrupt nature of the outage.
Verizon addressed the situation via a statement on the social media platform X, indicating awareness of the issue affecting wireless voice and data connectivity for some customers. The company stressed that its engineering teams were actively engaged in diagnosing and resolving the problem as swiftly as possible. Verizon acknowledged the critical importance of dependable connectivity and expressed regret for any inconvenience customers experienced.
Correspondence with CNN further detailed Verizon's commitment to mitigation efforts, noting that engineers remain fully deployed and intensely focused on addressing the service interruptions. The provider emphasized an understanding of how such outages can disrupt daily routines and reiterated its dedication to restoring normal service rapidly.
This incident adds to a series of high-profile technical outages that have impacted major networks and online services in recent years. Notably, similar disruptions have previously affected platforms such as Amazon Web Services, which experienced a large-scale outage in October that impacted web accessibility globally. Earlier in 2024, a widespread service failure by AT&T left customers across the nation without connectivity, prompting an investigation by the Federal Communications Commission.
The outage affected critical urban centers including New York City, Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, and Dallas, with reports indicating these areas experienced particularly pronounced service degradation. Users documented symptoms such as handsets displaying SOS-only mode or complete loss of cellular signal, consistent with the surge in reports recorded by Downdetector.
Analysis of the report data revealed that 59% of submissions related issues to "mobile phone failure," while 34% cited a "loss of signal." These figures illustrate the range of connectivity problems encountered during the outage. The volume of complaints began to climb around midday and gradually diminished in the afternoon hours, according to publicly available real-time data.
While users also reported sporadic issues on AT&T and T-Mobile networks, representatives from these companies affirmed their services were operating normally. However, due to Verizon's extensive outage, customers attempting to contact Verizon users through other carriers, including T-Mobile, may have experienced difficulties. T-Mobile clarified that although its network functioned properly, inbound connections to Verizon devices could have been impeded during the outage.
Verizon has not publicly disclosed the root cause of the disruption. Jack Burbank, senior IEEE member and vice president of advanced communication technologies at Sabre Systems, indicated that such outages might result from a variety of technical failures. These can include issues such as erroneous configuration changes or problems arising from flawed software updates, any of which could lead to widespread service interruptions.
Despite the loss of cellular connectivity, customers remained capable of making calls and utilizing internet services over Wi-Fi networks. Devices operating on Verizon's network, including phones from Apple, Google, and Samsung, also support satellite text messaging functionality. This feature enables users to send messages even when traditional cellular or Wi-Fi networks are unavailable, though satellite connectivity may be hindered by obstructions like buildings or dense foliage and works best in unobstructed environments.
For users seeking to maintain voice connectivity during cellular outages, Verizon provides instructions to enable Wi-Fi calling. On iPhones, this can be activated by accessing the settings menu, selecting the cellular option, and turning on Wi-Fi calling. Android users can find similar options under the calls section in their device settings. Activating Wi-Fi calling ensures that voice calls can be routed over available Wi-Fi networks, mitigating the impact of the cellular disruption.
The company is continuing its investigation and resolution efforts, with expectations to restore full network functionality swiftly. Customers and observers are advised to stay tuned for updates as new information emerges regarding the outage's cause and remediation progress.