Massive Verizon outage — latest service restoration updates, cause being investigated

Tracking website Downdetector is showing a big spike on an outage with Verizon this morning. Prior to 10:00 a.m. ET, the service appeared to be normal, but now there's an increasing amount of people reporting issues.

So far, customers reporting issues with Verizon are mostly isolated to the east coast, with New York City and Washington D.C. having the most. Meanwhile, there's a huge spike in the mid west.

While Verizon customers are reporting outages, Visible on the other hand doesn't seem to be affected at all. Downdetector can also verify this as the amount of outages reported from Visible customers is low. This is interesting because Visible uses Verizon's network.

Over 100,000 reported Verizon outages

It's been more than an hour since the first reports about customers having issues with Verizon, but now it's topped more than 100,000 reports according to service tracker Downdetector.

AT&T reported outages are beginning to spike

Meanwhile, rival AT&T is also starting to see a similar spike with reported outages. Even though it's nowhere close to the amount reported by Verizon customers, it's already eclipsed over 1,000 reports according to Downdetector.

Chicago, Phoenix, and Denver have the most reported outages

Chicago, Phoenix, Denver, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Omaha, Minneapolis, Columbus, and Seattle round out the top locations with the most Verizon outage reports, according to Downdetector

Verizon responds to reported outages hitting its network

We've reached out to Verizon for a comment about the situation. According to a Verizon spokesperson, "we are aware of an issue impacting service for some customers. Our engineers are engaged and we are working quickly to identify and solve the issue."

Customers using #VerizonOutage to share experience

Verizon customers who are having issues with their devices this morning are going on social media to report their experience so far with the hashtag #VerizonOutage. Over on X (formerly Twitter), many customers are still reporting their devices are stuck in SOS mode. Meanwhile, the same reports are being posted over on Threads.

Reported outages spike in Los Angeles

Although there weren't as many reports as other cities, Los Angeles has quickly garnered a substantial amount of outages from Verizon customers there — with over 3,000 reports in the last hour and growing, according to Downdetector.

Outage reports starting to recede

Over 2 hours since the first batch of outage reports from Verizon customers, it appears as though they've been receding since 12:00 p.m. ET. It peaked at 104,932 reported outages at 11:13 a.m. ET, but it has since started to decline. Most recently at 11:59 a.m. ET, there were about 75,000 reported outages according to Downdetector.

Northern California outage

Philip Michaels, our managing editor for mobile, uses Verizon for his wireless service, and he's experiencing the outage as well from his home base outside of San Francisco. When trying to place a call, the phone immediately goes to a Call Ended screen (pictured above) without so much as a ring.

The official word from Verizon

The statement Verizon provided to us earlier is now on X for all to see.

AT&T: No outage here

AT&T may have seen its own spike in reports on Down Detector, but the carrier says there's nothing wrong with its network. In a statement posted on X, AT&T says "Down Detector is likely reflecting challenges our customers are having attempting to connect to users on another network."

Verizon outage: What we know so far

Here's a quick TikTok report from news editor Dave LeClair on the outage. (Note that this video was produced before AT&T's statement that it's not experiencing an outage.)

@tomsguide

♬ original sound - Tom’s Guide

The current status

We're about three hours into this outage, and while the Down Detector chart appears to be trending downward, that's still a high level of outage reports. From Northern California, Philip Michaels confirms that he still can't place calls on Verizon's network.

Verizon engineers trying to identify outage issue

From Verizon's own network status page, the company says it's aware about the ongoing wireless service interruption that's affecting some customers. There's still no work on what exactly has caused the outage, but the company says that network engineers are working to quickly identify the problem and solving it.

Over 2,600 replies to Verizon on X

Clearly customers are voicing their concerns about the ongoing Verizon outage. In fact, there has already been over 2,900 replies to Verizon's post on X. Many of the responders still claim they are unable to make phone calls.

Reported outages continue to slow down

We're more than 4 hours into when the first reports about Verizon outages began and it's still slowly declining.  As of 2:01 p.m. ET, there was a total of 49,730 reported outages according to Downdetector, which is a steady decline. Verizon's still investigating the cause of the outage and is actively pursuing a solution to restore service.

Consider VoIP services as a backup

Even though many wireless carriers offer Wi-Fi calling as an extra way to stay connected, broader network outages such as today's Verizon one can still affect Wi-Fi calling services.

This is why a backup solution to stay connected is to look at VoIP services such as TextNow and Google Voice. Obviously you'd have to create new accounts to use these services, but they're great backup options in the event your main service provider goes down. That way, you can still receive text messages and calls through your mobile device or through a browser.

Wi-Fi calling service is also affected by the outage

Wi-Fi calling service is also affected by the outage

Outage is still ongoing

As of 4:06 p.m. ET, the Verizon outage is still ongoing with approximately 45,172 reported incidents according to Downdetector. This is a slight decrease from 1:00 p.m. ET when there was a dramatic dip.

Some customers say that service has been restored

More and more customers are saying that service has been restored. Our own managing editor, Philip Michaels, says that his service is back up and running after being down for most of the day.

Other customers who have been experiencing outages since this morning report that they're finally getting their service restored according to users on X and Threads.

And finally, Verizon has come out to say that its engineers have been making progress with restoring service and it expects to continue working to make sure it's fully resolved.

Over 1.6 million user-reports record outages

Downdetector has been keeping tally of how many user reports there have been with outages with Verizon. Based on its data, there have been a total of 1.6 million users-reports indicating that there have been service disruptions.

While this figure doesn't necessarily say they're from Verizon customers directly, it's still a sobering amount that shows the gravity of the outage — which has also affected customer on AT&T and T-Mobile. Although, their reports seem to stem from not being able to get in touch with Verizon customers who were without service today.

Back in business?

Well, if the chart from Down Detector up above is any indication, Verizon appears to be making progress at restoring service to customers. This data was pulled from the site just after 7 p.m. ET, and it shows a drop-off in incident reports over the last hour, which is when Verizon said that it's network was getting back online.

Verizon says disruption over 

Verizon has confirmed to us that the service disruption is over, and that Verizon customers should be able to once again make and receive calls and do all the other things included with their service plan.

"Verizon engineers have fully restored today's network disruption that impacted some customers," a spokesperson told us. "Service has returned to normal levels.  If you are still having issues, we recommend restarting your device. We know how much people rely on Verizon and apologize for any inconvenience.  We appreciate your patience."

We're checking with Verizon to see what may have caused the outage as well as how many people were affected. We'll update this blog with that info if it becomes available.

Verizon remaining stable over night 

So far this morning the reports regarding Verizon have remained relatively stable. This suggests that the worst might be behind us, although it should be noted that this could change as more people on the East Coast wake up and start their day. Otherwise, it appears that Verizon has managed to solve the issue as it said on X. 

FCC Investigating 

While we wait for Verizon to reveal more details about its major outage, the FCC is stepping in to probe what happened and why. The FCC said it was "working to determine the cause and extent of these service disruptions," according to a report in Reuters. 

Customers Still Facing Issues 

As of October 1 there are still complaints coming in about Verizon's service not working properly. For example, Joyce B in Maryland says she's still getting an SOS status on her phone and another user in Washington claims that she is still on SOS mode. 

Fewer outage reports, customers looking for compensation

Things are looking like they're back to normal order after yesterday's massive Verizon outage. This morning, there are still some reports of outages according to Downdetector, but for the most part service has been restored.

Meanwhile, Verizon customers who were directly affected from the outage have been vocal on social media about compensation for not having service for most of the day yesterday. Verizon is still investigating what caused the network outage in the first place. However, the company hasn't publicly stated what it could do to offset the loss of service.