Verizon confirms a network outage is affecting mobile customers across the US

Verizon mobile customers reported widespread outages across the US on Monday. Starting at around 9:30AM ET, hundreds of thousands of people flagged issues with their mobile service on Downdetector, which tracks user-submitted outage reports. The volume of reports spiked at almost 105,000 at 11:20AM, but were still reaching almost 59,000 at 12:52PM.

Many folks claimed they were unable to make or receive calls or exchange text messages. Those with an iPhone may be seeing “SOS” instead of the usual connection bars on the top right of their screen. That’s a common sight when there’s limited service or none at all. However, affected iPhone users can still make emergency calls via other networks.

A Downdetector heatmap suggested that the issue was most prevalent in New York, New Jersey, Georgia and elsewhere on the east coast and midwest. A narrow yellow band of reports was also emerging on the west coast as of 1:10PM ET. along with an intensifying heat spot in Los Angeles.

Verizon confirmed that service was affected for some customers. “Our engineers are engaged and we are working quickly to solve the issue,” the company wrote on X at 11:48AM. The cause of the outage is not yet clear.

As of 3:45PM ET, Verizon had yet to provide an update on the outage via X. User outage reports were still flooding into Downdetector, however, with almost 48,000 of them at 3:10PM.

At 5:04PM ET, the company tweeted that “service has started to be restored,” and Downdetector reports of outages had dipped below 30,000.

By 7:20PM ET, the number of reports of an outage on Downdetector had dropped below 3,500. The company’s baseline is below 100, and there has still been no word from the company on what the cause behind the outage was.

Update, September 30, 7:20PM ET: This story has been updated multiple times since its original publish with updates on the size of the outage and Verizon’s public statements on the matter.