A major Verizon wireless outage hit the United States on Wednesday, disrupting mobile voice, text, and data services for hundreds of thousands of customers nationwide.
Reports of connectivity issues peaked in the early afternoon, with many users seeing ‘SOS’ on their phones instead of normal cellular service, a mode that still allows emergency calls but no regular communication.
Major metropolitan areas including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington DC were among the hardest hit, according to The Associated Press.
The outage drew attention not only from impacted users but also from public safety officials. In cities like New York and Washington DC, authorities warned that interruptions to mobile networks could hinder access to emergency services and advised residents to use alternative communication methods, such as landlines or other carriers, during the outage.
How long did the outage last?
According to outage tracking data, the disruption persisted for about 10 hours, with Verizon confirming service was restored late that night around 10:20 pm ET.
The exact cause of the problems has not been publicly disclosed, and Verizon has not indicated whether the issue was related to software, hardware, or external factors.
Officials from the company encouraged customers still experiencing issues to restart their devices to reconnect to the network, The Verge reported.
Will affected customers get credits from Verizon?
In response to the outage and the widespread inconvenience it caused, Verizon announced that affected customers will receive account credits.
The company acknowledged on social media that it “let many of our customers down “and said it is committed to “make this right” by providing compensation to those impacted by the service disruption.
However, specific details on the amount of credit or how it will be applied have not yet been released. Verizon stated that it will share credit details directly with customers in the coming days.