Mass Verizon Outage — Live Updates and What to Do with iPhone in SOS

The outage is still ongoing

As of 4:06 pm ET, the Verizon outage is still ongoing with about 45,172 reported incidents, according to Downdetector. This was a slight decrease from 1:00 pm ET when there was a dramatic dip.

Wi-Fi calling services were also affected by the outage

Wi-Fi calling services were also affected by the outage

Consider VoIP services as a backup

While many wireless carriers offer Wi-Fi calling as an additional way to stay connected, widespread network outages like today's Verizon can still affect Wi-Fi calling services.

That's why a backup solution for staying connected is to look into VoIP services like TextNow and Google Voice Obviously you'll need to create new accounts to use these services, but they're great backup options if your main service provider goes down. That way, you can still receive text messages and calls through your mobile device or browser.

Reported outages tend to slow down

It's been over 4 hours since the first reports of the Verizon outage and it's still slowly diminishing. As of 2:01 pm ET, a total of 49,730 outages were reported, according to Downdetector, a steady decline. Verizon is still investigating the cause of the outage and is actively pursuing a solution to restore service

Over 2,600 answers on Verizon on X

Apparently customers are voicing their concerns about the ongoing Verizon outage. In fact, there have already been over 2,900 replies to Verizon's post on X Many respondents still claim that they are unable to make phone calls

Verizon engineers are trying to identify the problem of the outage

From Verizon's own network status page, the company said it is aware of ongoing wireless service interruptions that are affecting some customers. There's no word yet on exactly what caused the outage, but the company said network engineers are working to quickly identify and resolve the issue.

current status

We're about three hours into this outage, and while the Down Detector chart is trending downward, this is still a high level of outage reports. From Northern California, Phillip Michaels confirmed that he still can't make calls on Verizon's network.

Verizon Outage: What We Know So Far

Here's a quick TikTok report from news editor Dave LeClaire about the outage. (Note that this video was made prior to AT&T's statement that it was not experiencing an outage.)

@tomsguide ♬ Original words – Tom's Guide

AT&T: No outages here

AT&T may have seen its own spike in down detector reports, but the carrier says there's nothing wrong with its network. In a statement posted on X, AT&T said “the down detector likely reflects challenges our customers are having trying to connect to users on other networks.”

Official word from Verizon

The statement we gave earlier to Verizon is now on X for all to see.

Northern California outage

Philip Michaels, our managing editor for mobile, uses Verizon for his wireless service, and he's also experiencing outages from his home base outside of San Francisco. When trying to make a call, the phone immediately goes to a call end screen (pictured above) without a ring.

Reports of outages are starting to decrease

It's been more than 2 hours since the first batch of outages were reported by Verizon customers, and it looks like they're going back to 12:00 pm ET. It peaked at 104,932 at 11:13 am ET, but has since started to decline. Most recently at 11:59 am ET, about 75,000 outages were reported, according to Downdetector.

A spike in outages has been reported in Los Angeles

While there weren't as many reports as other cities, Los Angeles quickly gained a substantial amount of outages from Verizon customers there — with more than 3,000 reports in the last hour and growing, according to Downdetector.

Customers are using #VerizonOutage to share experiences

Verizon customers who have had issues with their devices this morning have been taking to social media to share their experiences so far with the hashtag #VerizonOutage. On X (formerly Twitter), many customers are still reporting that their devices are stuck in SOS mode. Meanwhile, the same report is being posted in the thread.

Verizon responded to the outage reporting damage to its network

We've reached out to Verizon for a comment on the situation. According to a Verizon spokesperson, “We are aware of an issue affecting service for some customers. Our engineers are engaged and we are working quickly to identify and resolve the issue.”

The most outages were reported in Chicago, Phoenix and Denver

According to Downdetector, Chicago, Phoenix, Denver, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Omaha, Minneapolis, Columbus and Seattle are among the top locations with the most Verizon outage reports.

AT&T reported outages starting to increase

Meanwhile, rival AT&T is also starting to see a similar spike in reported outages. While that's nowhere near the amount reported by Verizon customers, it has already received more than 1,000 reports, according to Downdetector.

More than 100,000 Verizon reported outages

It's been more than an hour since the first reports of customers having problems with Verizon, but it now tops more than 100,000 reports, according to service tracker Downdetector.

While Verizon customers are reporting outages, Visible on the other hand doesn't seem to be affected at all. Downdetector can verify this because the amount of outages reported from visible customers is low. This is interesting because Visible uses Verizon's network.

So far, reported customers with Verizon are mostly isolated on the East Coast, with New York City and Washington DC the most. Meanwhile, there is a huge spike in the Midwest.

Tracking website Downdetector is showing a big spike in an outage with Verizon this morning. Before 10:00 am ET, service appeared to be normal, but now the number of reported issues is increasing.