“Verizon engineering teams are continuously working to address today’s service disruptions. Our teams are fully deployed and focused on the issue. We understand the impact this is having on your day and are committed to resolving it as quickly as possible.”
Around noon on Wednesday, many Verizon customers learned that their phones had gone into SOS mode. Now, Verizon has acknowledged the ongoing outage.
In a statement to Mashable, a Verizon representative said, “We are aware of an issue impacting wireless voice and data services for some customers. Our engineers are engaged and working to quickly identify and resolve the issue. We understand how important reliable connectivity is and apologize for the inconvenience.”
Verizon outage: Why does your phone say SOS, what we know so far
The Verizon support account on X also shared the same message on Wednesday afternoon, when confused customers took to social media to demand answers.
mashable light speed
So far, Verizon has not indicated the cause of the problem or the timeline of a possible fix.
Platform Downdetector classified the outage as “extreme”, describing it as “a catastrophic break in standard cellular connectivity”. (Disclosure: Mashable and DownDetector are both owned by Ziff Davis.)
“The impact has been assessed as Very highReporting primarily with users Mobile phone failure (59%) and total Signal loss (34%). A recurring theme in user feedback is the device’s default “SOS Mode,” DownDetector said in a statement to Mashable.
When in SOS mode, customers are not able to make or receive phone calls or texts, and data services are also not available. However, customers should still be able to make emergency 911 calls via satellite, as normal.
While DownDetector received a surge in user error reports for T-Mobile and AT&T, at this time, Verizon appears to be the only major mobile carrier suffering from the outage. In a statement on Twitter, T-Mobile said its network is operating normally at this time.
This is a developing story…
<a href