Verizon says outage resolved after customers across the U.S. lost service for hours

Verizon said Wednesday night an outage had been resolved after customers across the U.S. reported service outages, with many saying that their devices had been limited to SOS since about noon Eastern Time. 

"The outage has been resolved. If customers are still having an issue, we encourage them to restart their devices to reconnect to the network," Verizon said at around 10:30 ET Wednesday night. 

The company said it would provide account credits for those who had been affected by the outage, the details of which would be "shared directly with customers."  

A Verizon spokesperson earlier confirmed to CBS News that the company was aware of "an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers."

"Today, we let many of our customers down and for that, we are truly sorry. They expect more from us," a Verizon spokesperson said in an earlier statement. "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."

It's unclear how many customers were affected by the outage. According to Downdetector, which tracks reports and problem indicators online, more than 180,000 users reported outages at one point. Outages were reported from New York to California, according to complaints posted on the website and social media.

Some T-Mobile users have also reported outages but a T-Mobile spokesperson said its 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," the spokesperson said.

New York City Emergency Management said that the outage may have affected some users trying to call 911 in the area.

"If you have an emergency and cannot connect using your Verizon Wireless device, please call using a device from another carrier, a landline, or go to a police precinct or fire station to report the emergency," NYCEM said in a statement.

Due to the outage, Verizon customers said their phones were in SOS mode. Mobile phones will sometimes switch to SOS mode when they're having trouble connecting to a wireless network. As the name suggests, SOS mode means the phone can still make emergency calls, such as 911, by connecting to other carriers, according to Apple.

In August 2025 and October 2024, Verizon experienced a similar outage.