Verizon ‘aware’ of service issues, working to restore connectivity as thousands report outage

Verizon is responding Wednesday to an issue impacting wireless voice and data service for customers across the nation, the company said.

Verizon said the outage began around noon Eastern time and work continues to resolve the issue.

“Today, we let many of our customers down and for that, we are truly sorry. They expect more from us. We are working non-stop and making progress. Our teams will continue to work through the night until service is restored for all impacted customers,” the company said in a statement Wednesday night.

Many customers said their phones showed “SOS” in place of network bars.

According to Downdetector, at least 175,000 Verizon customers were affected at one point, but that number has since gone down. Downdetector, a site that tracks outages, said Verizon customers began noticing interrupted service around noon Eastern time.

By 3:30 p.m. Eastern time, the number of Verizon customers affected by the outage was down to less than 60,000, according to Downdetector.

In a social media post shortly after 4 p.m. ET, Verizon said a team “is on on the ground actively working to fix today’s service issue that is impacting some customers.”

New York Emergency Management (NYCEM) officials said the outage was affecting some users calling 911.

“Verizon is working to solve the issue,” NYCEM said in a statement. “If you have an emergency and cannot connect using your Verizon Wireless device, please call using a device from another carrier, a landline, or go to a police precinct or fire station to report the emergency. In the meantime, you can check the website or social media account of your cellphone carrier for updates.”

Multiple law enforcement agencies have spent hours looking into the possibility that the Verizon outage could be the result of a cyberattack. But as of now, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News the belief is the outage is a technical issue and not the result of a cyberattack or some other nefarious act.  

The federal government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is referring questions to Verizon.

Verizon said it will “make this right,” adding in a statement that “for any customer affected, we will provide account credits and share updates soon.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.