Is Verizon still down? Users report ‘SOS’ signals on phones

More than 1.5 million Verizon customers reported disruptions to wireless voice and data services on Wednesday, January 14, according to outage-tracking platform Downdetector.

The disruption was widespread across the United States, with the largest concentration of complaints logged in New York City (47,644), Atlanta (34,229), Charlotte, Houston and Brooklyn, the website’s real-time data showed.

"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 apologise for the inconvenience,” the company wrote in X.

Later, the company released an update saying, "Verizon's team is on the ground actively working to fix today’s service issue that is impacting some customers. We know this is a huge inconvenience, and our top priority is to get you back online and connected as fast as possible. We appreciate your patience while we work to resolve this issue.”

The statement came after a wave of social media posts from affected users, many reporting that their phones displayed no service bars or showed “SOS,” indicating loss of network connectivity.

According to user reports on X, Verizon’s network began experiencing problems around noon ET. The telecom giant later released two additional social media statements reiterating that engineers were working to fix the disruption. However, the company did not disclose the cause of the outage or provide a timeline for full restoration.

As of 6 p.m. ET, service had not been fully restored. A yellow alert banner was also placed at the top of Verizon’s official website, reading, "We are working to restore service quickly."

Meanwhile, political reaction followed the prolonged disruption. Republican New York State Assembly member Anil Beephan Jr. called on the Federal Communications Commission to investigate the hours-long outage.