NEW YORK (Diya TV) — A widespread Verizon wireless outage that began around midday Wednesday disrupted phone calls, text messages and mobile data for hundreds of thousands of customers across the United States, briefly preventing some 911 calls from going through and prompting calls for a federal investigation. Company officials and law enforcement sources said there is no evidence the outage was caused by a cyberattack, though the exact cause remained unclear hours later.
Customers first began reporting problems shortly after noon Eastern time, according to Downdetector, a website that tracks service disruptions. At its peak, the site logged more than 178,000 Verizon user reports, with the heaviest concentration in New York City, Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston and Dallas. Some later reports suggested total complaints across the day surged far higher, reflecting the outage’s broad reach.
Many affected customers said their phones displayed “SOS” instead of signal bars, indicating a loss of cellular connectivity and a fallback to Apple’s limited satellite-based emergency feature on some iPhones. Users reported being unable to make calls, send texts or access mobile internet.
“We are aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers,” Verizon said in multiple statements throughout the day. “Our engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly. We understand how important reliable connectivity is and apologize for the inconvenience.”
The outage raised immediate public safety concerns, particularly in large cities. New York City Emergency Management officials confirmed that some Verizon users experienced difficulty reaching 911 during the disruption. The agency urged residents who could not connect on Verizon to use a device from another carrier, a landline, or go directly to a police precinct or fire station to report emergencies. Similar emergency alerts were sent in Washington, D.C., and other major metro areas.
Christina Farrell, first deputy commissioner of New York City Emergency Management, said city officials were coordinating directly with Verizon and other agencies to assess the impact. While she could not say whether the incident was larger than AT&T’s daylong outage in February 2024, Farrell emphasized the importance of preparedness. “It’s also a good reminder for people to have an emergency plan — Plan A, Plan B,” she said, encouraging residents to maintain backup ways to reach help.
As the outage stretched into the evening, Verizon posted a yellow banner on its website reading, “We are working to restore service quickly,” but did not provide a timeline for full restoration. Some customers reported brief service returns, only to lose connectivity again.
Multiple law enforcement agencies examined whether the outage could have been caused by a cyberattack, but sources told ABC News they believe it was the result of a technical issue. The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency referred inquiries back to Verizon, underscoring that the investigation had not identified malicious activity.
The disruption also drew political attention. Republican New York state Assembly Member Anil Beephan Jr. called on the Federal Communications Commission to investigate the hours-long outage, writing to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr that it had a “significant and unacceptable impact on public safety” and raised broader concerns about the resilience of the nation’s communications infrastructure.
Verizon’s competitors said their networks were operating normally. T-Mobile stated its system was “keeping our customers connected,” while AT&T said its network was “operating normally,” despite a smaller volume of outage reports appearing on Downdetector.
By late Wednesday, Verizon said its teams remained “on the ground actively working” to resolve the issue, thanking customers for their patience. As of the evening, however, the carrier had not disclosed the cause of the outage or when all services would be fully restored, leaving customers and public officials waiting for answers about one of the most significant wireless disruptions in recent months.
