Verizon faced a major wireless network outage on Tuesday that lasted more than 10 hours, leaving many customers without service across large parts of the United States. Phones showed SOS mode, meaning users could not make calls, send texts, or use mobile data.
The outage began around 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time and mainly affected the eastern half of the country. Reports came in from Florida to New York, with later issues reported in Texas and Missouri. New York City appeared to be one of the hardest-hit areas.
Verizon confirmed the issue on social media shortly after it began but did not provide a repair timeline for most of the day. Customers flooded outage tracker Down Detector, where reports peaked at over 180,000 before slowly declining.
By Tuesday night, Verizon issued a longer statement and apologized for the disruption. The company said its teams were working nonstop and promised to “make it right” by offering account credits to affected customers. However, Verizon did not explain the cause of the outage.
Late Tuesday evening, Verizon said the issue was “resolved.” Despite that claim, thousands of users continued to report connection problems, especially in the New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania areas.
Other carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile said their networks were stable. Any issues their customers experienced were likely due to trouble reaching people on Verizon’s network.
As of early Wednesday, outage reports had dropped to under 5,000, but some users still said service was unreliable. Verizon has not confirmed what caused the failure or when full stability will return.
Verizon said updates and details about customer credits will be shared soon. For now, many customers remain frustrated as they wait for clear answers and full service restoration.
