Verizon said a major service outage that disrupted mobile service for thousands of customers on Wednesday and prevented some local 911 calls from going through was resolved late Wednesday night. In a statement, the company said customers who are still having trouble should restart their devices to reconnect, and Verizon said it will provide account credits for those impacted.
Reports peaked midday as phones showed “SOS”
Outage reports began rising around noon Eastern time, according to Downdetector, with many customers posting that their phones displayed “SOS” instead of network bars. Downdetector reports peaked in the afternoon at roughly 175,000–180,000 users before steadily falling into the evening. The highest concentrations of reports were in major metro areas, including New York City, Atlanta, Charlotte and Houston.
NYC warned some Verizon users could not reach 911
New York City Emergency Management said the outage was affecting some 911 calls from Verizon Wireless devices and urged people who couldn’t connect to use another carrier, a landline, or to go in person to a police precinct or fire station to report emergencies.
Authorities looked at cyber angle, but sources point to technical issue
Multiple law enforcement agencies examined whether the outage could be tied to a cyberattack, but law enforcement sources said the working belief was that it was a technical issue, not malicious activity. The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency referred questions to Verizon.
Sources:
AP News / Verizon outage disrupts calling and data services for wireless customers across the US
The Verge / Verizon’s wireless network is back online after outage
