Verizon outage across US leaves hundreds of users without data service, blackout under investigation

A major Verizon outage in the US led to several reports of devices showing “SOS mode,” dropped calls, and failed texts pouring in.

A major Verizon outage affected the United States beginning around 12:41 ET on October 8. Hundreds of users were left without cellular or data service. Several reports of devices showing “SOS mode,” dropped calls, and failed texts began pouring. The blackout remains under investigation.

Verizon outage across US leaves hundreds of users without data service, blackout under investigation (Unsplash - representational image)

Here’s what we know

Outage tracker DownDetector showed that user report volume surged at about 12:41 AM ET. Several Verizon users took to social media to complain of no service, emergency calls only, and network disruptions.

The outage seemingly affected both mobile voice/text services and data connectivity across various texts. Verizon acknowledged at least some downtime, adding that engineers are working on it.

Verizon has not yet released an official breakdown. However, reports suggest that the outage is nationwide. Clusters of reports came from major metro areas, with several users across the East Coast, Midwest, and parts of the South being affected, according to Cedar News. User complaints and status maps contained LSI keywords like network disruption, cell service outage, wireless carrier down, and cellular network blackout.

Users on social media described phones stuck in “SOS mode” or “Emergency Calls Only,” said they were unable to send texts or make regular calls, reported dropped data connections/no mobile internet, and expressed frustration over delayed communication from Verizon.

While Verizon has not confirmed what the root cause of the outage was, potential reasons could be a software or firmware glitch at the network core, DNS or routing failures, a cascading failure in network infrastructure, maintenance or misconfiguration, or cyberattack or security incident. However, there is no concrete evidence.

Verizon has said that it is “aware of issues impacting service” and that engineering teams are troubleshooting. Amid the evolving situation, users can check Verizon’s official network status page, reboot devices or toggle airplane mode, use Wi-Fi calling, and keep an eye on local news and updates from Verizon.