Massive Verizon Outage Across US Could Be Affecting 2 Million (Live Updates)

In a letter to the FCC, New York State representative calls on the agency to investigate Verizon for its outages.

Anil Beephan/Screenshot by Patrick Holland/CNET

New York State Assembly member Anil Beephan sent the Federal Communications Commission a letter on Wednesday asking the agency to investigate Verizon's network outages. In a post on X, Beephan wrote, "Whether caused by internal failures or external interference, these ongoing disruptions pose a serious threat to public safety and to the people we represent. Reliable wireless service is essential for emergency response, public alerts, businesses, and everyday communication."

It's not clear if this is simply a government call-to-action or just an elected official capitalizing on the moment. 

A spokesperson for Verizon just sent CNET the following statement:

"Today, we let many of our customers down and for that, we are truly sorry. They expect more from us. 

"We are working non-stop and making progress. Our teams will continue to work through the night until service is restored for all impacted customers. 

"We will make this right - for any customer affected, we will provide account credits and share updates soon."

Feeling lost without a cellular signal.

Jeff Carlson/CNET

I mentioned in an earlier post that a phone service outage is an inconvenience for many, but some people get hit harder than others. Scanning through the r/Verizon threads, I'm seeing reports of upset customers who have lost clients because they couldn't be reached or who had to relocate to a friend's or relative's house to do work.

It's also affecting other services. New York City's official emergency notification system warned readers on X earlier Wednesday that the Verizon outage could impact 911 calling, advising them to "call using a device from another carrier, a landline or go to a police/fire station" in an emergency.

The Verizon outage doesn't appear to part of a cyberattack.

W Prasongsin Stulio/Getty

Verizon's network outage started impacting people around 9 a.m. PT on Wednesday. The disruption in service has affected customers across the US, including people in New York city, New Jersey, Florida, the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles.

The outage was not caused by a cyberattack, according to a report from ABC News. "There is no evidence of a cyberattack," law enforcement sources told ABC.

A heat map of Verizon outages according to Downdetector at 4:05 p.m. PT.

Screenshot by Jeff Carlson/CNET

Although Verizon's outage hit a peak of 178,284 reports during a 15-minute window this morning, the long tail of recovery is still being drawn out. As of 4:06 p.m. PT, Downdetector had received 2 million reports from people affected by the disruption. The Verizon status tracker notes that just under 40,000 people reporting were still without service as of 3:51 p.m. PT.

Keep in mind that Downdetector tracks reports of the outage. The real number of customers affected is likely higher. 

(Disclosure: Downdetector is owned by Ziff Davis, the same parent company as CNET.) 

Krispy Kreme is giving out free doughnuts at certain locations due to the Verizon outage.

Tim Bird/Getty Images

Can a sugar rush temporarily distract Verizon customers from the outage? Krispy Kreme Doughnuts says so. The chain posted on its Instagram account that on Wednesday from 4 to 7 p.m. (we're assuming that's the same in whatever time zone you're in), customers can receive a free original glazed doughnut.

"SOS got you down?" the snarky Insta post asks, before explaining the offer and adding, "because some days need a sweet backup plan you can rely on."

Note that numerous commenters report their local Krispy Kreme isn't participating in the offer, so please check with your specific location. Oh, and you don't need to be a Verizon customer, the Krispy Kreme account clarified later in the comments.

In cellular settings on an iPhone, you can set up multiple eSIMs. 

Screenshot by Jeff Carlson/CNET

A cellular outage, like the one affecting Verizon, is annoying, though usually temporary. But what if you absolutely need to stay in contact without interruption? In the past, we might have suggested carrying multiple phones. Instead, perhaps it's time to consider running two providers' plans on the same phone.

The shift from physical SIM cards to eSIMs, which are just stored in memory, means you can load up a single phone with two or more mobile plans. This is the approach people use when they travel to other countries for local phone and data service, without having to track down a physical card.

You don't need to load up on each company's unlimited phone plans (unless it's critical that you can stream your favorite shows from anywhere). It can be cost-effective to set up a budget-friendly phone plan as a secondary eSIM that offers basic features and high-speed data allowances. 

When an outage hits or you find yourself in an area with spotty coverage from your primary provider, you can switch to the alternate and stay connected.

T-Mobile responds to the Verizon network outage.

Joseph Maldonado/CNET

"T-Mobile's network is keeping our customers connected, and we've confirmed that our network is operating normally and as expected. However due to Verizon's reported outage, our customers may not be able to reach someone with Verizon service at this time," a T-Mobile spokesperson told CNET.

If you notice that your iPhone is in SOS mode, here's what that means and what you can do.

Kevin Heinz/CNET

A portion of Verizon's network crumpled on Wednesday, with up to 175,000 customers seeing "SOS" in their phones' status bars instead of connection bars. Network outages are nothing new, but these days they often don't reach this type of scale.

Unfortunately, when the network is down, there's not a lot you can do to get reconnected -- you have to wait for service to resume. But those three alarming letters on your iPhone can still make anyone anxious.

According to Downdetector, the Verizon outage is getting resolved. If you were affected, you may experience another issue: The "SOS" message could continue to appear even after the network is restored.

Take a look at this story to learn what you can do when your iPhone gets stuck in Emergency SOS mode, even when service is back online.