Verizon confirmed Wednesday, January 14, that hundreds of thousands of customers were being impacted by a widespread outage spanning across multiple regions within the United States.
The disruptions reportedly began around noon Eastern Time, when customers started reporting issues. Impacted customers reported being stuck on “SOS” mode, which prevents normal calls, texts, and mobile data usage.
According to outage tracking site Downdetector, more than 170,000 users reported issues at the peak, with figures reaching as high as around 178,000 before declining to approximately 110,000 by 2 p.m. Eastern Time.
Reports indicated the issue was nationwide, with heavy concentrations in major metropolitan areas such as New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami, and Portland, Oregon.
🚨BREAKING: Massive Verizon outages across half the United States. pic.twitter.com/lPBP9vNRB5
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) January 14, 2026
Verizon acknowledged the issue in a statement posted to social media. “We are aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers. Our engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly. We understand how important reliable connectivity is and apologize for the inconvenience,” the company said.
In a later update posted at 2:14 p.m. Eastern Time, Verizon added that its engineering teams were continuing to address the issue. “Our teams remain fully deployed and are focused on the issue. We understand the impact this has on your day and remain committed to resolving this as quickly as possible,” the statement continued.
The company has not yet provided a cause of the outage, nor have they given a definitive timetable for when customers can expect full service.
Verizon engineering teams are continuing to address today’s service interruptions. Our teams remain fully deployed and are focused on the issue. We understand the impact this has on your day and remain committed to resolving this as quickly as possible.
— Verizon News (@VerizonNews) January 14, 2026
The disruption prompted emergency alerts in some areas, including New York City and Washington D.C., advising affected users that 911 calls might be impacted. Affected users were further advised to use a landline if possible, and to alert emergency services directly.
Widespread outages appear to be contained to Verizon, contrary to viral reports that have gone viral on social media. AT&T and T-Mobile reported significantly fewer issues, with Downdetector showing only around 1,600–1,700 reports each.
Both companies confirmed their networks were operating normally. “T-Mobile’s network is keeping our customers connected, and we’ve confirmed that our network is operating normally and as expected. However due to Verizon’s reported outage, our customers may not be able to reach someone with Verizon service at this time,” T-Mobile said in a statement of their own.
Hundreds of thousands of Verizon users have still reported outages as of 3:30 Eastern Time. Customers were advised to check Verizon’s network status page or contact support for updates.
