A widespread outage knocked Verizon wireless service offline for more than seven hours on Wednesday, impacting over 1.5 million customers across the United States before the company finally resolved the issue late that night. The disruption, which began around 12:30 p.m. ET on January 14, left customers unable to make calls or use data services—prompting emergency alerts in major cities and frustration across social media.
“Today, we let many of our customers down and for that, we are truly sorry,” Verizon said in a statement. The company confirmed it saw no indication of a cyberattack causing the disruption, though it didn’t disclose the full scope of what went wrong.
The Scale of the Problem
Downdetector, which tracks service outages by aggregating user reports, recorded more than 1.5 million complaints from Verizon customers on January 14. That number far exceeded a previous Verizon outage from August 30, 2025, which was already one of the largest disruptions that year.
The outage hit hardest in major metro areas. New York City, Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, and Brooklyn saw the highest concentrations of reported problems, according to Downdetector’s real-time tracking. By 4:15 p.m. ET, reports had topped 1.5 million—making this one of the most significant nationwide connectivity interruptions in recent memory, according to internet monitoring company Cisco ThousandEyes.
Verizon serves 146.1 million wireless connections in the United States, meaning the actual number of affected customers likely exceeded those who reported issues to Downdetector.
Emergency Services Impacted
Several major cities issued public safety alerts as the outage interfered with emergency communications. New York City Emergency Management warned residents on X that the outage could affect 911 calls. “Call using a device from another carrier, a landline, or go to a police/fire station to report emergencies,” the agency advised.
Washington DC issued similar guidance, telling residents to use devices from other carriers, landlines, or visit police and fire stations directly if they needed emergency help. The widespread nature of the disruption raised concerns about public safety during the hours-long service interruption.
Verizon’s Response and Resolution
Verizon said in a statement posted to X at 10:20 p.m. ET that the outage had been resolved. The company suggested customers still experiencing connection issues should restart their devices.
“We understand how important reliable connectivity is and apologize for the inconvenience,” Verizon said in an earlier statement as the outage unfolded. By evening, the company acknowledged the severity of the situation more directly. “Today, we let many of our customers down and for that, we are truly sorry.”
The company promised to provide account credits to affected customers, with details to be shared directly. “Verizon’s team is on the ground actively working to fix today’s service issue that is impacting some customers,” the company said in an update at 4:12 p.m. ET. “We know this is a huge inconvenience, and our top priority is to get you back online and connected as fast as possible.”
Real-World Disruptions
The timing couldn’t have been worse for some customers. Bruno Mars fans trying to purchase presale tickets for “The Romantic Tour” found themselves locked out when the Ticketmaster presale launched at 12 p.m. local time. The tour, Mars’ first since his 24K Magic World Tour in 2017, consists of 40 shows kicking off in Las Vegas in April.
Sports venues and concert halls scrambled to help ticketholders. The NHL’s New Jersey Devils posted a notice on X ahead of Wednesday night’s game against the Seattle Kraken, urging fans to add tickets to their Apple or Google wallets before arriving at the arena “to avoid any delays.” George Washington University issued similar advice for its men’s basketball game against Davidson.
Customer Workarounds
For customers with Wi-Fi access, messaging apps provided temporary solutions. iPhone users could rely on iMessage and FaceTime over Wi-Fi. Other options worked across platforms—WhatsApp and Telegram both offer messaging and calling capabilities over internet connections.
Google Voice presented another alternative. The service assigns users a phone number tied to a specific area code, allowing them to make and receive calls, texts, and voicemails. Most Google Voice calls within the United States and to Canada are free, though some domestic and international calls carry fees.
What the “SOS” Symbol Means
Many iPhone users saw “SOS” or “SOS only” appear in their status bar when cellular networks became unavailable. On iPhone 14 and newer models, this indicates the device can still make emergency calls using other networks or possibly satellite connections.
To activate Emergency SOS on an iPhone, press and hold the side button and either volume button until sliders appear. Alternatively, users can enable a setting to trigger Emergency SOS by quickly pressing the side button five times.
Android phones typically display “No Service” or “Mobile Network Not Detected” during outages. On Android 12 and later models, Emergency SOS mode remains available for emergency calls.
Other Carriers Affected Too
While Verizon bore the brunt of the disruption, customers on other major providers also reported problems. By 2 p.m. ET, more than 1,600 T-Mobile customers and more than 1,700 AT&T customers had filed outage reports on Downdetector.
T-Mobile seized the opportunity to distinguish its network performance. “T-Mobile’s network is keeping our customers connected, and we’ve confirmed that our network is operating normally and as expected,” the company said at 2:28 p.m. ET. “However due to Verizon’s reported outage, our customers may not be able to reach someone with Verizon service at this time.”
Social Media Reaction
Verizon customers didn’t hold back on social media. The wireless carrier quickly became a top trending topic on X, with users from North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Louisiana, Tennessee, and beyond sharing their frustrations.
KHOU meteorologist Pat Calvin noted the sudden technological disconnect felt like returning to a bygone era. Others placed creative blame for the outage, while many simply vented about the timing and duration of the service interruption.
Regulatory Response
Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr told Reuters after a congressional hearing on Wednesday that the agency would review the outage “and take appropriate action.” The FCC’s involvement signals potential regulatory scrutiny of what caused such a widespread and prolonged service disruption.
An Unexpected Silver Lining
Krispy Kreme found a creative way to sweeten the situation. The doughnut chain offered free Original Glazed doughnuts from 5-7 p.m. Wednesday to anyone dealing with “the frustrating ‘service outage’ today.” One free doughnut per customer—”because some days need a sweet backup plan you can rely on,” the company said on Instagram and X.
Where the Outage Hit Hardest
Downdetector’s outage map showed the largest concentrations of problems near New York City, southern New Jersey, Washington DC, and Chicago as of just after 5:30 p.m. ET. Other major affected areas included Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco, Boston, and Tucson, Arizona.
Reports began declining by late afternoon. By 2 p.m. ET, the number of customers reporting outages had fallen to about 110,000 from a high of about 178,000 earlier. By 4:45 p.m. ET, reports had dropped to more than 60,800 as service gradually returned.
Comparing Past Outages
The January 14 outage exceeded Verizon’s August 30, 2025 disruption, which was one of the largest U.S. outages in 2025. However, it fell short of the biggest U.S. outage that year—one hitting Sony’s PlayStation Network on February 7, 2025, which generated 1.6 million Downdetector reports.
The biggest global incident in 2025 was an Amazon Web Services outage on October 20, 2025, which led to 17 million Downdetector reports worldwide.
