Verizon Indicates Resolution of Network Disruption; FCC Investigating Mobile Network Outage Affecting Thousands of Users in the US, Reports Reuters

By Harshita Mary Varghese and David Shepardson

WASHINGTON – Verizon has successfully resolved a network disruption that affected thousands of customers across the U.S. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced on Monday that it is investigating the outage after numerous users reported issues.

In a subsequent statement, Verizon confirmed that service has been restored to normal levels.

Cities such as Chicago and Seattle were notably impacted, with some iPhone users finding their devices stuck in "SOS" mode.

Tracking data indicated that the outage commenced around 9:30 a.m. ET, with over 28,000 reports by 5:02 p.m. ET. Areas like Minneapolis, Phoenix, Omaha, and Denver were among the hardest hit.

Verizon’s representatives shared earlier in the day that their engineers were working to rectify the network problems and service was beginning to recover. The company expressed apologies for the inconvenience experienced by customers, but did not elaborate on the cause of the disruption.

At its peak around 11:19 a.m. ET, there were approximately 105,000 outage reports. The FCC stated that it was working to ascertain the reason and scope of the service interruptions.

Users on social media noted that their phones were showing "SOS" in the status bar, indicating a lack of connection to the cellular network while still enabling emergency calls via other carriers.

The outage tracking site recorded 448 reports from users of another major carrier, but that company asserted it wasn’t experiencing a nationwide outage and that its network was operating normally. They suggested that their customers were encountering challenges connecting with users on different networks.

Previously, a sector competitor faced a major nationwide outage in February that extended over 12 hours and affected over 70,000 customers.

The FCC is currently looking into that incident, which disrupted more than 92 million voice calls and obstructed over 25,000 911 emergency call attempts.

This latest disruption for Verizon became public shortly after the company announced a significant deal allowing an infrastructure firm to lease, operate, and manage over 6,300 mobile towers throughout the U.S. for $3.3 billion.