14th January, 2026
Verizon appears to be facing a major outage that’s caused customers to lose cellular access, preventing them from making phone calls, texting, or receiving internet data.
The problem began around noon EST when user reports of the disruption surged on Downdetector.com, which tracks outages at major IT providers. Those reports have since soared to over 235,373.
Verizon is already working on a fix, although the cause remains unclear. “We are aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers,” the company told PCMag. “Our engineers are engaged and are working to identify and solve the issue quickly. We understand how important reliable connectivity is and apologize for the inconvenience.”
An hour after acknowledging the outage, the carrier tweeted: “Verizon engineering teams are continuing to address today’s service interruptions. Our teams remain fully deployed and are focused on the issue.”
Verizon Phones Are Showing SOS Mode
The outage has been hitting Verizon customers across the US, particularly in the Chicago, New York, and Seattle areas. Downdetector has rated the disruption as “very high,” noting that 63% of people logging reports are having mobile phone issues; 31% do not have a signal.
The problems include phones losing complete access to the Verizon network, according to complaints posted on Downdetector. Instead, iPhones are showing an “SOS” indicator for Apple’s satellite data system, which is meant for emergency purposes, in the top-right corner, instead of any cell phone bars. The satellite feature, which mostly supports text messaging only, is designed to only pop up when traditional cellular access unavailable
