Verizon outage strikes thousands across the US as customers can’t send texts or make calls

More than 23,000 people have reported an outage with Verizon

Customers reported that their phones were stuck in SOS mode and complained to the company on social media (Getty Images)

Thousands of Verizon customers across the U.S. are unable to make calls and texts after the network suffered an outage, with some criticizing the provider’s lack of updates as “shameful.”

More than 23,000 people reported an outage with Verizon, according to the website Down Detector, which started Saturday at around noon E.T. and is ongoing in certain places.

Almost 60 percent of the outage reports were for mobile devices, with 40 percent of those reporting having no signal, according to Down Detector.

Customers reported that their phones were stuck in SOS mode and complained to the company on social media. Others were left without service for over four hours.

At around 9 p.m E.T., around 7,000 people still reported an outage, according to Down Detector.

Shortly afterwards, at 9.12 p.m. E.T., the company updated customers on X.

“We are starting to see service restoration in impacted areas,” it read. “Our engineers have been working diligently on today's service disruption, and continue to work to ensure remaining customers are fully restored as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience as we have worked through this issue.”

Verizon said they were aware of the issue and were working to fix it. (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Verizon previously said customers should visit the “Check Network Status” page for service availability and the latest updates.

However, before that message, the company was criticized by customers online for its apparent lack of communication or regular updates.

“I spend way too much for @Verizon sorry ass to be on SOS all day. I didn’t even know there was a problem until I was on the road with no working phone. They could at least provide updates,” wrote one frustrated user on X.

Another added: “When you think your phone is broken so you spend hours trying to fix it, then you drive to the @Verizon store to find out there’s a nationwide outage only effecting certain (most people) INSTEAD OF VERIZON LETTING PEOPLE KNOW.”

“I’m losing money with service being down. Is Verizon going to compensate their customers??” wrote a third user, to which another replied “Nope, I doubt it.”

Some however, tried to see the positive side of the outage, with one user suggesting that people “take it easy and relax” and even use the situation to go outside.

“Put your phones down and go for a walk or decompress on this three day weekend, and it will probably be back up when you return,” the user wrote in the Down Detector comments section.

“I am just as frustrated, but, reading all these comments has helped me address how unproductive my thinking was. Hope everyone gets outside and enjoys the weekend.”

Verizon experienced a similar outage In October 2024 which resulted in over 100,000 reports on Down Detector.