Verizon Wireless faced a major service disruption, affecting tens of thousands of customers across the United States.
On Monday, users reported being stuck in “SOS mode,” which allows emergency calls but restricts other phone services. The outage was widespread, with reports coming from cities along the East Coast, including Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and New York, and across other parts of the country.
A Verizon spokesperson acknowledged the issue, saying the company was “aware of an issue impacting service for some customers” and that engineers were working to resolve it. By late Monday afternoon, Verizon reported progress, with service starting to be restored for many users.
“We know how much people rely on Verizon and apologize for any inconvenience,” the spokesperson added.
According to data from Downdetector, which tracks service outages, over 100,000 reports of Verizon service issues had been logged by 11 a.m. ET. The cause of the outage remains unclear, and Verizon confirmed that it was not related to Hurricane Helene, which had recently impacted the US.
Many customers took to social media to express frustration over the prolonged outage and to request compensation for the disruption. Some also highlighted difficulties with two-factor authentication, a security feature that relies on receiving a text message to access accounts.
Verizon has not yet disclosed the specific cause of the issue or how many customers were affected. The company advised those still experiencing problems to restart their devices. It remains unclear whether Verizon will offer compensation to affected customers, similar to a $5 credit AT&T provided during a previous outage earlier this year.
Verizon continues to monitor the situation, and service is expected to return to normal for all users soon.
FOX Business, CBS News, and CNET contributed to this report.
